busy busy and maui - day two

so tomorrow i head to ny for a few days, fly back to seattle then go to LA for the next few days, THEN on saturday i am taking seamus to see disney princess wishes on ice!!

went for an 11 mile run today with feather and dave. it was all uphill it seemed. but it was actually pretty good, although now i feel a little bit like i am getting a cold.

so on saturday morning seamus woke up telling us that we weren't in hawaii. we had told her that hawaii had the beach and sand and she didn't see any of that so we must not be in hawaii. eric took her to the lanai and said, see over those buildings, thats hawaii. she was good with that.
so i was racing in the makena 10k. after planning the trip and coordinating flights and cars, condos and directions, i did not check to see what the race start time was. eric said 9, the neighbor said 9 i said, ok 9 sounds good. we took our time, did our thing and mosied over to the race. passing the hotel grounds while looking for parking it sure seemed strange that so many people were already lined up when there was still an hour before the start. they took me to athlete drop off, i jumped out and asked some volunteers when the race wsa to start. 8am. what time was it? 7:55. i ran towards the crowd saw a dude with a number and asked him were registration was. it was closed! but there were people there, they ran with me over to a lady who ran with me to a guy, i signed some paper they handed me a number, someone else handed me some pins and i asked if there were potties on the course. no. damn. where was one? waaaaaay over there. i thought and thought and thought, quickly. and i decided i would wind up totally a mess if i didn't do it, so i went, did my business and made it to the start with enough time to stand for about a second and the cannon went off. this was all actually good because it meant i didn't have to sit around waiting, getting thirsty and getting worried.
i decided to start off slow since it was so hot and i had no idea what the course was like. it was a lot of road at first. then it turned and went on some gravel road. but all of it was up hill. 20 minutes in, the 5kers caught up and we got to the split. i thought, i could go that route and be done in 10 minutes. but i stayed my route. lots of people were walking, and i stopped to walk some, too. i walked at each of the aide stations getting some gatorade and water and mixing them together. i walked through any tiny bit of shade i could find, really there wasn't any. i talked to a guy who was pasty white who was coming from honolulu. i don't know how that happens, but he said while although it was actually considerably cooler then last week, the heat was killing him. it made me feel better. it felt like we were at altitude and it was killing me, i was prepping myself for a 1:30 time. then we started down hill. and we just went down hill for a really long time. i passed a few people which was good and i was feeling considerably better. then we went into the woods, i think the spooky forest maybe, i don't know. then it was to big beach. and it was long, but beautiful. i tried to stay by the water since the sand is easier to run but i got hit by a wave and now was stuck with wet, heavy sandy shoes. and the end no where in sight. note to self, don't get your shoes wet in the sand. but i ran the whole beach which was impressive for me. then into some more woods for a bit then out onto another shorter rockier beach. i picked off 4 women and one man during this time. i was pretty stoked and felt like i was racing. at one point i adjusted my finish time to 1:05. but then during the last stretch, maybe a 1/4 mile to go one of the women picked me back off. i told her good job as she passed but then i thought to myself, what??? so i sat on her for a bit and once in the finish shoot i sprinted her at the end. then i sat in the shade for a bit.
i met up with eric and the kids and grandma. eric picked up his race registration and i went to get my registration packet and shirt since i dind't get it before the race. we saw eric's friend jason and they chatted and eric got some tri shorts to race in. then we hiked to the car and loaded up. eric went off on his bike for a bit and the rest of us went back to the condo. sirus wanted to nap but seamus wanted to go to the pool so we did. then eric came home and we took the kids to the beach for a bit. by this time i was started to get what i thought might be a migraine. we decided to go to dinner and sho'nuff in the car thank goodness i had the where with all to bring a bag because i spewed all over. the kids were all freaking out patting me on the back since i was wedged between them. everyone got out except me, i handed the bag to seamus and could hear her asking whats that whats that? eric's response - soup. dinner out was nixed, groceries and dinner back at the condo were in. i went back and slept for a few hours and felt waaaaay better.
that was saturday.

maui update - getting there

our flight was 1pmish on friday. we got to the airport with plenty of time, checked in at the sky cap, got through security and went to the gate. then they changed the gate. then it was delayed. then we got on the plane and found out that not only must car seats be by the window (which ruined all my seating arangements plans) but they stuck us in a row on the wing. apparently no car seats on the wing either.
the flight was good. at one point we hit some turbulance and seamus told me all about how it made her tummy hurt.
as we started to descend sirus fell asleep.
our layover had gone from 1 hr down to 15 minutes. we had to get off the plane, catch a shuttle, transfer to a different shuttle, change terminals, and run run run!! grandma was dragging poor little sirus, which was quite funny because his legs are just so short. but we got there and got on the plane and took off. this flight was good, too.
once again as we started to descend, sirus fell asleep.
then we got off the plane and headed to baggage claim where we saw charles the neighbor who was also coming out for the race and we saw bruce from bend, who was there for the race, too. charles took eric's bike, eric went to get the car and the kids, grandma and i gathered all the luggage and waited. the computers were down at car rental, so we had to wait an extra forever.
5 seconds into the car ride and both kids were OUT.
got to the condo and it was about 3042387 degrees. the kids slept through it all, got them in their jammies and put them in their beds.
eric went to the grocery store and spent $45 on milk, eggs, pb&j, bread. milk was $6.00!!! Bread was $5.00. I had to yell a little asking if he went to the 7-11 or something but no, hawaii is expensive.
grandma and sirus bunked together, seamus, eric and i shared. we all went to sleep.

since i'm not embarassed

eric is funny. ya know in that way that isn't so funny, ya know that way where a birthday hickey is only funny to the one who doesn't have to go to work with it. so, i was out in the ocean there in hawaii and he grabbed the camera to get some bikini shots. oh joy. just what i love more then anything.
but because i am not embarrassed, here is the photo:
but the best part and what makes me ok with the whole thing is when you zoom in, this is what is happening up close:

sirus

chocolate cake

so, earlier in the month, before becoming part of the throughth3wallchallenge, i had made a quick food log to document the crap that i eat on a daily basis. i mentioned some chocolate cake. the reason there was chocolate cake was because a guy i work with not only had an incredible marathon pr of 2:18 but at the same time qualified for the olympic trials in NYC this past weekend. so absolutley amazing. as i grow older i find it fascinating and reassuring that people who are amazing athletes or who hold high power positions in the corporate world are just like me. and you even. they are normal ordinary people. i have met my share of both types and ya know, they are just normal people who do interesting things. i try to do my best in both of those areas so it gives me reassurance that while people do have special gifts that may help them be extra amazing, they are normal, too. realizing this has helped me imensly in the past year to overcome HUGE obsticales at work. i am now public speaker extraordinare. ok, maybe not, but really, i can do it and i am fine.
on that note, i did some super modeling this past weekend. i was feeling old when i showed up there and the people doing hair and makeup didn't want to do my hair since it was short, until this lady came along and put in pin curls and made it all 1940's which i loved, then when all the girls were wearing grey and black and red with leather hand bags, they put me in this super frumpy mustard yellow dress with a canvas bag that said to kiss my canvas. all outfit changes after that were good though. i am going to try to dig up some photos from it.
there is lots to tell about the trip to hawaii. a few quick comments though, it was hot, the kids had a blast at the beach, we got to see cheri and we want to go back. even the redeye flight back was ok. we managed back to the house by noonishon saturday and sirus went down for a nap probably around 3pm and didn't wake up until 8am on sunday! he was a tired little guy! more about the trip and the races later.

hawaii was fun

way fun. lots to tell, but not right now.

short cut not so short

so my commute sucks. balls. the suck ballsiest part of it is the first 2.5 miles of it in the morning. at my old job, i still had to do that same first2.5 miles but i left considerably earlier and had no traffic woes. but ya know, i am just too damn tired to get up and leave the house by 6:15 every morning. so now i sleep in until 7 which is nice because that is when everyone at the house is up. its much better to start my day with some baby hugs and kisses. because i leave later when everyone else is leaving, i sit in traffic trying to get onto the freeway. so i have come up with a short cut that actually adds an extra 3/4 mile or so to the trip but if its gets me there quicker then hey. so today i have found that at least today, my short cut is no quicker. just as i was changing lanes to go toward the short cut i saw a lime green honda element stuck in the traffic. i said, ewww, why would someone get one of those in that color? then i went on my merry way. as i was finlly merging onto the freeway the honda element came right up beside me. hmmm. i don't know how i feel about that.

throughth3wallchallenge

i am participating in a keep fit over the winter challenge. its being run by iron wil who i am totally loving right now. i discovered her blog a month or so ago and got totally sucked into her account of her experience with ironman. so i signed up for the challenge, only days after talking about how a food log is a bad idea for me since i eat so much crap all the time. well, having a public log is much more effective then putting it in excel or somewhere where no one would ever look. as a result i have managed to realy curb the poopy chocolate consumption. i'll tell you what will really curb it will be when all the kids are all potty trained and go poopy in the potty because that is part of life and not going poopy in the potty just for some chocolate. eric brings home the big 1/2 pound bars ALL the time. he did before there was any potty training to be had but back then i was never tempted. now its totally pavlovian for me, any time a kid poops, i need some chocolate, too.
i have been sick and having the insomnia all week. tylonol pm is my new friend, but i was able to fall asleep on my own last night. i contribute my insomnia to a several things, because it hit about this same time last year, too. its either the time of year, work or my cloggs.
today i ran a 10k race. i wasn't sure what to expect. i did as well as i was hoping to - hit my goal, not my super stretch goal but my goal which was good. a few times i was thinking that maybe i should just stop. but i kept going and even managed to run the 6th mile in 7:15 which i was pretty suprised by! i am exhausted now though, partially because of the race and partially because we walked the two miles to the race, then i warmed up for about 1.5 miles then we walked the two miles home, UP HILL.
now i've got seamus on my lap, she is not wanting to take a nap but she really really needs to.
oh, we are heading to hawaii here pretty soon, which is pretty exhausting, too, but exciting none the less.

food log

i read a lot on fitness and health and diet sites that keeping a food log is a good idea. i will show you why this is not a god idea when it comes to me as this is what i had today:
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich
1 americano
1 venti water
four (4) 4! pieces of pizza with giant roasted garlic cloves on them. tasty but stinky
1 venti water
another venti water
2 brautworsts
a coffee cup of granola cereal with mostly water but a splash of 2 days over the "best before" date of skim milk for color
way more poopy chocolate than anyone should really have
i thought i was done, but thenn eric and the kids came home with icecream. so i had to have some of that.

that was today. yesterday was even better:
1 peanut butter and jelly sandwich
1 americano
1 venti water
1 granola bar
1 giant slice of chocolate cake that someone brought to work and left on the table outside my office
1 venti water
1 and 1/2 grilled chicken breasts with lots o garlic
4 pieces of the tastiest bacon ever
1 and 1/2 bowls of rasin bran/granola cereal mix with mostly water but a splash of 1 day over the "best before" date of skim milk for color
dude, too much poopy chocolate
did i have a beer? i don't remember but i did have another venti water that when eric brought it to me he said he had put the straw up his arse, ya know, for flavor.

it might be a good idea to lay off the poopy chocolate, the way fattening cured meat products and maybe have a veggie or two other than garlic. its a good thing that i at least drink a decent amount of water.

baby boy isn't a baby any mo'

today is sirus's 2nd bday. do you remember this? i barely do. i can go on an on how much of a cutie he but he just is. we had a little bday party for him over the weekend and invited the cousins. it was a pirate themed party but he had a car shaped cake. then today for his actual birthday eric brought the kids out to my work and we went for a run together. in the rain. in the cold. in the wind. it kicked my arse. the guy at the grocery store told me it snowed 7 inches in the mountains today. that is no suprise, especially not to any of those stuck in the rediculous traffic today. apparently its hard to drive when it is cold out. i tried heading out of work at 4 but didn't get out until after 5 then rolled into the door at 630. we had some ballons and an icecream cake and a few presents, it is his birthday afterall.
what else? work is totally stressing me out. its good, but its exhausting.
and we head to hawaii in 23 days!! that stresses me out a little, too. when i reminded eric of is he puffed out his stomach and made the comment of how he is oh so ready to race at the world championships, which is funny. he will race and he will finish and hopefully it wil be fun for him. i am thinking of doing the 10k trail run the day before which goes through a "spooky forest". we will be in maui for halloween, so we are taking the kid's costumes and they will do their halloween action all maui style.
eric got a playstation 3 which i don't know how i feel about it. he rented fantastic 4 the silver surfer, but it wasn't. it was the first one. so he returned it and rented the real silver surfer. i have never had any interest in seeing this movie.
i do however like the show house. i am quite tickled that kumar is going to be on house's team. they are planning a harold and kumar go to white castle sequel which when i tried to reference NPH i said JHK instead. eric laughed at me.

posting some more

so last night i had a dream where i was trying to fly to detroit. there were no direct flights so i had a layover in some place that then should have been only a 45 minute commuter flight to detroit, but the whole thing was going to be 12 hrs. the one part of the trip that was all fine and good was that tommy lee was on the flight. he was wearing a mint green camisole and had a a matching sweater but wasn't wearing it. when i asked him about why he was wearing a camilsole he said someone had given it to him, someone who was important to him but who was sick or who had died or something and he said, hey, it fits, he will wear it. he was still damn hot, even in a mint green camisole with a built in shelf bra.

stupid movie part 2

when resident evil came out how ever many years back i agreed to go see it with eric because i wanted to see mila jovavich or whatever kick some ass. i wanted to see some totally kick ass bitch be a total bad ass. yeah, so the movie was terrible, gore for the sake of gore and just terrible. so terrible that i wanted to walk out of it. right now eric turned on resident evil part two (so the one coming out in theaters now is part 3? i can't even beleive it) and i had to make the comment of - wow, if i have the time to strap on all hose guns and ammo and stuff, i sure would take the time to put on some pants and probably a more functional top then a tub top. eric quickly came to the lady's defense saying that she was a cop and wasn't expecting to have to go to work that day, so of course she was going to wear that.
now, i really liked Shaun of the Dead. that was a good zombie movie.

eric

eric gets mad at me when i eat cereal for dinner. so tonight i had a chocolate chip cookie heated in the microwave with vanilla ice cream on top of it. i feel like i have ice cream residue all over my mouth and reached over to my sleeve to wipe it off, but thne had a second thought - this shirt is clean and i plan on wearing it to sleep in, i better not start wiping residues on it yet. i will save that for tomorrow. now eric is eating the cookie with ice cream.
we went to yakima for the weekend. i like yakima, its eastern washington and its warm and in the county. while driving home today i had to think, maybe i should quit my job (what is wrong with charlie sheen's hair on the emmy's?) that totlally stresses me out and just get a normal job and eric can get a normal job too and we can go and get a house out in the middle of no where and just not care any more. it would be so nice. (what is wring with connan obrian's hair on the emmy's?) (why are they in such uncomfortable looking chairs?) it doesn't help that as soon as we got up into the mountains the weather got all crappy again.
seamus started preschool. she seems like she is liking it but i am not so sure how i feel about it. she and sirus also both started playing soccer. that they both seem to love. they get little uniforms which i think is funny. sirus is almost two which is crazy and i can't beleive it. he is growing up so fast, he and seamus both.
triathlon season for me is over for the year but i am trying to figure out what i am going to do over the winter and for next year. i ran the woodinville 1/2 marathon the other weekend, but did not break the 2 hr mark. i ws off by 56 seconds. but now i am going to actually train for a 1/2, meaning actually go on some training runs longer then 30 minutes. its all part of a master plan that i'm not ready to talk about right now. last year i ran seattle in 2:02, this year i will break 2 hrs and get over that mental road block then start planning the races to start chipping off the minutes. now if i just didn't have that pesky thing called work to get in the way of all my running. i also want to make sure to keep my swimming up over the winter. i haven't swam any since the lake sammamish tri but i am looking forward to a good season next year and probably another lake stevens 1/2 ironman.
and mezzie made my day, i think you are right about that lame lady at the playground.

not sure

so i have been getting up on the wrong side of the bed lately it seems. this past week, although it was a short week, i sure was having a bad day on thursday i think it may have been. or was it wednesday? i' not sure.
then there was today. everything was going well. we went for a family jog with feather and dave and gumball. the kids looooved that gumball was along for the run. they kept an eye on her the entire time and laughed and laughed. when we got home, eric took off to meet up with his buddies for a bike ride and the kids and i hung out and ust did our thing. they had lunch and then a little later everyone was ready for nap time. myself included.
when eric got home we went for a walk to the uvillage to get out of the house for a little and get some dinner. the kids and i went to the playground while eric went to get us dinner. now, granted i had done a 1/2 arsed job trying to put myself together before heading down there and i was just in shorts and a baggy sweatshirt but i did try to cover up all my zits and i tried to calm down my hair a bit (damn the hair and the awesome new doo. i need it cut again, its getting poofy and out of control, this is going to be an expensive upkeep) buti was there helping sirus climb the ladder, he is becoming quite the impressive ladder climber and then trying to remind seamus to take her turn when i caught some woman giving me a look. all of a sudden i got very self conscious, i cant even spell it. she was one of those east side women with the bleach blonde hair, fake tan, probably late 30s, maybe even early 30s but she was sut giving me the stare down. for some reason it made me feel very bad about myself and ruined the rest of the time there for me. eventually she left and i couldn't rationalize my feelings about the whole thing. finally when we were leaving, eric got me a hot chocolate from starbucks and the bad feelings started to leave. i told eric the whole thing and he said the only reason the lady was giving me the looks was because she couldnt beleive that i had two kids and was as damn hot as i am. ha. he makes me laugh. i did decide to agree with him, because he is probably right.
seamus and sirus started soccer this past week. i guess its pretty cute and they were both having a great time. seamus also started preschool on thursday. i took the morning off from work so that i could be there to drop her off. she started to cry on the way there because she didn't want us to walk her in, she just wanted us to drop her off and then leave. but we took her in, she found her very own cubby, put her snack in it and then went into the classroom. iwish i could be there to watch what she is up to all day. she didn't say much about preschool that evening other then that there were two slides, a kitchen and a shopping cart. she did bring home a painting which i hung on her wall for her.
sirus is talking more, still not a whole lot and most of it i can barely tell, but he is so funny. he loves wheres waldo, especially the pages with cars on them.
we are going to go for a family bike ride tomorrow. that wll be fun i think!

and more

catch up

whoa! havne't posted since aug 4? has it been that long since i got my fabulous haircut? what all has been going on. work? more work? oh, yeah, and some more. i went to new mexico for work. which was way fun. it was for a conference at a fancy resort outside of albequrue. i got off the plane, got in a car, got dropped off, checked in then went for a run in the 32485293 degree heat at about 24232 feet elevation. needless to day, it about put me on my arse! but then i went to the pool and hung out. never got into the water because it felt too cold but rested and relaxed. it was sooo luxurious. by the end of the conference, it was rumored that caroline rheah, oprah, kevin costner, dennis hopper, and benji and the gang from so you think you can dance were all at the resort. good fun. cocktail reception that evening was lovely. had some margahitas but they about killed me. i felt totally hammered in the morning but i got up and ran on the treadmill in the morning then off to the conference. i have never been to anything where everyone was so friendly! it was really quite pleasant!! at some point in the day eric got there! horray!! it was so fun to have him there even tho i was working pretty much the whole time!! tuesday eric and i got up and went for a run together. it wasn't too hot so it was fun. tuesday was only a 1/2 day because there were off site activities. eric and i took this as sit by the pool, go down the water slide 100 times and then head to santa fe. we walked all around there and then i eventually went to the conference dinner while eric headed out and then hung at the bar. wednesday at the conference i lead a session which was not very well attended but then i had to get on the microphone and give a summary to the whole group. that was exciting. i couldn't wait for wednesday to be over but that also meant we would be heading home. the flight was uneventful, except for the girl from tampa who sat next to eric who had the magic bag of food that she managed to pull an entire pizza out of and a hogie and apparently some other things. i slept through most of it. i knew it was dry in new mexico, but i had no idea until i got him and when i pulled the covers back to get into bed the bedding felt damp. weird.

friday allie came to visit, which was very exciting!!! she brought her husband and little boy and we had so much fun!! i did a triathlon saturday morning which was exciting, my swim was 2 minutes faster then the same race last year and my run was almost 5 minutes faster, i think. i was really please with the swim, even before i knew the time, i felt really like i had tried pretty hard. it was short but i was happy. i always feel like i am working sort of on the bike and can't figure out why my time is so slow. i was about 3 seconds slower on the bike then last year, but ya know, when you don't train on the bike, you can't really expect anything. allie met me on the run and ran with me. it was very funny because allie was telling me stories about the people as we passed them, such as "she got back from the bike two minutes before you" and "you were 23 in your wave out of the water but ya know that girl with the amazing abs and the broad shoulders was 21 out of the water in her wave" or something of that nature. it was all fun.
after the race we met up with the rest of the crew in the mini van and headed down town. we went to pikes place market and then to the aquarium, which was a huge hit. the kids LOVED it. sirus was laughing and yelling and just so excitied. seamus was so interested in everything!! the two families split up, but i hear that zach enjoyed it just as much as our kids!
everyone came home and napped and then i don't really remember any more of saturday.
sunday allie and eric went for a 12 mile run, then we headed out on a hike. the kids were amazing! they hiked and hiked and hiked! up hill and down hill and running every where! i can't wait to go again.

so much

a lot has happened since the last post.
a family triathlon at seafair in which i was talking to a woman in the transition area who was telling me how a friend of hers said ironmans were like childbirth and had to say - yes! that is exaclty what i posted about the other day.
a trip to san diego to see jen in which the beach was so cold that we sat in the car and looked at it instead of sitting on it. we were planing on a detox cleansing thing but wound up gettting too drunk the night i got in and we decided it would be unsafe to detox all hung over. we spent most of the weekend at the outlet mall which was way fun and even funnier is that we both showed up at the cash register with the same exact outfits in our arms.
a 1st place, yes i said 1st place finish in my age group 5k run and pr at the torch light run. 60 people in my age group, unbeleiveable!!
a trip to nyc which was scary and fun and exciting all at the same time. i got to meet liz which was loooooong over due and i am so excited to have gotten the opportunity! and i got to see dug, too, which is always a treat! and i disovered what might just be a cult, The American Girl Place. I got one of the dolls for Seamus and i can't wait to visit one of the stores with her some day so we can get the doll's hair done.
and i got a hair cut. my curl is mostly gone and my last hair in march was terrible. i hadn't had what i would call a bad hair day in probably years but boy after that cut i had one almost every day. i hadn't gone to the fabulous team of richard and james dean downtown, but instead opted for a random person in redmond who trnaslated i want something young and hip into lame soccer mom. lo and behold - james dean saved the day! he is my hero. i was trying to take some photos of my sweet new dooo and this one came out of the camera. i love it. click on it and check out the eyes. no photo shopping that one, looking like a cyborg.

what am i, velvet?

so, its only been a few days and already i have forgotten the pain and am thinking about doing my next 1/2 ironman. i have told a few people that the race is just like labor and childbirth. you anticipate the event for months and months, go through periods of excitement, worry, self doubt and sickness, then you get to the actual event and its exiciting but scary and it hurts and you wonder if it will ever be over, you cramp and you worry and you want it to be over and then it is and you vow to never go through it again.

then a few days go by, the pain subsides, you feel better, you reflect on your accomplishement and you say - wow that is amazing! i think i want to do it again!

of course there are a few main differences between the two events though: during the race you are allowed to eat. during labor and child birth you get to lay down. during the race you get to wear pants. during labor and child birth you can chose to have your lower 1/2 totally numb - during the race it just happens.

i have told eric about a billion times how proud of us i am. and to give myself a little credit i have told sirus and seamus about a billion times that i love them.

i went swimming on wednesday and felt really good! i was going to ride my bike into work this morning since eric and the kids picked me up from work yesterday and i left my car here, but it seemed pretty miserable in the morning and there wound up being thunderstorms so it was good that i didn't do it. but the seafair tri is on sunday and i am doing the swim, xtie is biking and my mom will run! i will do the run portion with her. i am excited but don't want to "can't wait" my whole weekend away!!!

its over!! finally! it has come and gone and now i don't have to worry about it or ver do anything like it again!
i have been a nervous wreck about this race for the past few months. two months ago even i told eric that i was just not going to do it because there was no way i would be ready in time for it. thatis when he committed to helping me get ready. i trained and did some running and some biking and swimming, a lot more then i had been doing and much more then i had last summer but i dind't feel ready at all. part of that was because i had no idea what to expect. i was planning 1 hr swim, 4 hr bike and 3 hr run with transition times biked into all of that.
saturdya we went to pick up registration and to rack our bikes. the mandatory pre-race meeting rhoroughly freaked me out. going to the race site made things a little better and it was nice because each racer was given a designated spot to rack their bike. i was 495. then we scoped out the swim start and then exits and entrances to transition. then we went home.
friday we had pizza for dinner. saturday we had the obligatory pasta dinner and it was damn tasty. with all of that carbo loading and all the carbo loading i had been doing for the past week i was feeling ok. grandma came over in the evening on saturday since she was going to watch the kids on sunday and we would be leaving for the race site before 430am.
it was next to impossible for me to fall asleep and i tossed and turned. i checked the clock and it was 135. next thing i knew the alarm was going off and it was 345. i had to poke eric to get up. we loaded into the car and picked up the neigbor and then we were off! we got an awesome parking spot, got our bodies marked then each went and set up our spots. then off to the honey bucket. the one i was so lucky to get was ALL THE WAY FULL. i was concerned that this would hamper my abilities to do what needed to be done, but oh no. everything worked out perfectly. then back to the car to drop off some stuff and to change. we then went and picked up or timing chips and got back into the potty line. 20 minutes later and it was time to go get suited up! the first wave of elite men went off at 630. eric's wave was 644 i think and i stood on the hill and watched him stage. it was the weirdest thing to watch because the waves were staged in the grass right by the dock. when your wave was called you walked out on the dock then down onto this other myster dock and then you got in the water there. it was weird to watch eric line up with these other dudes all in black with orange hats and then for them all to walk as though they were being sheppharded to the meat factory. real weird. my wave went off at 656. by the time we were on the dock i wasn't nervous. i slipped into the water which was really warm and tried to figure out my goggles.
then the race started. dare i say that the swim was actually good? and enjoyable? i was totally relaxed and just went on my way. i swam the crawl stroke more then i ever have before and wasn't getting tired. i did a lot of the breast stroke but on the home stretch i crawled more and i even crawled the last several minutes to make a good showing coming out of the water. i wsa caught by 4 if not 5 other colors of caps but everyone kept their own lines and it wasn't scary like it can be in the sprints. it was even inspiring. expected swim time 1 hr, actual swim time: 51:08
T1 - the neighbor and i came out of the water at the same time but he was out before i was, which isn't suprising since i took 3:30. funny thing, i finished 50 in my age group in the swim, so did eric, my t1 was 3:30 and so was erics. but he made a stop at the honey bucket, i was just slow.
onto the bike. i was worried about the bike. i knew it was hilly and long and i hand't ridden more the 35 miles in one ride since before i was pregnant with seamus. the bike started out good with a good stretch of slightly down hill. this was good because i was having weird upper hamstrong issues that i was quite worreid by. but before i knew it i passed the 5 mile sign and i was stoked. 33 minutes into the bike, i was lapped by the elite men. they were cool to watch go by with the disk wheels and all. i had a powerbar and would take a big bite out every 20 minutes for the first two hours. gu every 40 minutes was it after. i drank one big bottle and two little bottles of water. the time just ticked along. at one point i thought to my self that i wasn't so sure i wou;d be able to completed a 2nd lap and the run but i kept going. i passed the bottle exchange area at mile 14 and the course started to get fun. after a giant awesome long downhill section my odometer magnet and thingy were hitting each other going ding with each turn of the wheel. i was going crazy so i stopped and fixed it. then i finished lap one! i had spent more time out of the saddle and in my big ring then i imagined i ever would. lap two was good and seemed to go much faster. at 220 i decided to totally move my odometer away since it had started dinging again. maybe this helped? but i was having fun and at 40 miles into the bike course i was feeling great and felt like i owned the bike! ha! i went up the last big hill and the rest was smooth sailing along the lake. the bike was done! expected bike time 4 hrs - actual bike time 3:41.
i rolled into t2 for a whopping 4:23 stop. but, to give myself a little credit, i did a complete costume change including shorts and shirt, had some banana, put on a hat and then some body glide in the old arm pits and squirted some sunblock in my hand. i rubbed in the sunscreen as i ran out - spf 50!
the first mile was hard. i had to pee. i was going to pee in transition but thot that if i did i might stay in there. i got to the first aid station at mile 1, was amazed by the buffet of snacks, grabbed some gatorade, walked over to the potty and saw that the potty was occupied. imagine my supirse wne i looked at my watch and it said 9 minutes! so off to aid station #2. got there, got some water, the gatorade was too strong, went potty and was feeling really good. almsot too good. so i kept going. i then figured out that if i took both water and gatorade i could mix them and it would be perfect, so would get to the aid station, mix my beverage, drink it and walk to the last trash can. the course went through town twice with each lap. the 2nd half of each lap was along the lake and had a giant hill. on my way down the hil our neigbor was running up the hill. as i was coming into town to head out on lap two, eric was on the side of the course in his normal clothes! he was already finished! lap two was tougher but i was still feeling good. i dind' tmention that on the bike lap two my right something or another right below the back of my knee started to really hurt and kept hurting. it hurt through the run but i kep going. with only 3 miles to go i had that terrible hill and the last time into town. finaly i got to the 12 mile mark and i picked up the pace. when i got back into town i ran as fast as i could to the finish. expected run time 3hrs - actual run time 2:11.

total time: 6:52:03 i was THRILLED!!

eric met me at the finish and i was so excited!!! we sat on the ground and he brougt me some cookies and a banana and water. we sat there for quite a while.

while i was super happy with my results, eric pulled a 4:55!! while he was 50th in his group out of the water he was 3rd on the bike and 17 on the run - a 1:39 when he hasn't ever run more then 11 miles. i am very proud of him! he finshed 13th in his age group which i think is fantastic!! he is amazing! he finished so fast that he had some of the pizza they had at the finish line. it was all gone by the time i got there but i was ok with that!

awesome day but now we are both totally thrashed i am icing the back of my knee since i think it might snap any second now and we are both concerned about how we will feel tomorrow.

what wll the next goal? mine is to run 13.1 in less then 2 hrs which i thinki can probably do!

zits, fungus and good times

so, lets see, 6 days until the 1/2 iron man. my taper has been a good two months or so long so i should arrive pretty well rested. and i have been doing some serious carob loading this past weekend so i should be nice and full of carbohydrates that have turned them into a substatial but jiggle. eric and i are both looking forward to this being over. our crazy neighbor is doing the race too. he went and rode the bike course yesterday and said it was beautiful. we had driven it and yes it was quite lovely in a car, and maybe it will be lovely to go around once. i don't know why i am nervous. if eric were to say to me lets go for a 56 mile bike ride today i would whine about it but i would be able to do it.
i have got some what is likely athletes foot working itself onto my right baby toe. i put the tough actin tenactin on it, so hopfully it will stop being irritated here pretty soon. long time ago i had accidentally gotten my tough actin tenactin mixed up with my clearsil zit cream and before i knew it i was treating the athletes foot on my face. i feel a littel deja vu right now.
i did go to the aveda store to get something different for my face. i am still breaking out despite suposedly using this stuff that is supposed to be great. imagine my suprise when the guy pointed me to the stuff that combats aging. but it suposedly oh so gentle, maybe i have sensitive skin is that they are thinking. so now i am going through that nasty adjustment stage again where all the tiny zits come out to see everyone.
seamus told us the other day that he bike goes fast and her bike goes slow. she said she has a fast and slow bike. it was very funny.

ow

i am tired. way tired. tday was the mountains to sound race and i am disapointed in how terrible i feel right now. i got the hand off from the paddlers whom i hadn't ever met, gave them my cell phone and keys to my car, and then was off. i was feeling really good! i was picking people off all over the place. it was fun! i was worried about running 13.5 miles along the burke gilamn trail but it was actualy pretty nice. i had made myself a scrug from an old pumpkin push shirt. my arms get so cold and its just my skin that gets cold. so i cut it off real short and made it into a little jacket. it worked great! but only a few miles in i took it off and my shirt, too. i was feeling really good! they said there were two water stations, 1/3 of the way in and then 2/3s. but an hour in i knew i was more then 1/3 in and no water. just then it appeared but i think it was too late. i stopped and drank a whole cup but my mouth was instantly dry. it was all down hill from here on out. this is about when i got passed by the barefoot girl! she had little bootie things on but still. then i got passed by some really fast people, and i was ok with that. then we got to where we go for the family jogs and i started to fall apart. my knees, my back, my neck, all of it. plus i started to get worried that maybe there wouldn't be a 2nd water station and whatever. a mile or two went by and i eventaully came to the 2nd water station but it didn't help my knees or hammys. they said it was about 3 more miles to go. i got totally bummed out that the stop light changed at 25th so i could go. i really wanted to rest. i did eventually stop to stretch. and walk. a few times. it really bummed me out that i was feeling so terrible and that i had to walk as much as i did. then the temperature dropped by 5 degrees or even more, the sun went away and i had to put all my shirts back on. good that i did because it started to rain. and not yer typical seattle drizzle, but it rained some good old cats and dogs. insult to injury. but it did make me feel a little better. then i got passed by someone i had passed early on. then i got passed by two other girls that i had passed way back, but i caught on them and hung on. i wasn't able to catch and take them back, but i was able to run to the finish. my watch said 2:05, which was 5 minutes faster then i was looking to do, but 5 minutes slower then i was hoping to do. had it not been for all that walking. and i feel terrible. i have to figure out what i am going to do about the half ironman. no good is that that is going to be. i might just have to walk the whole thing.

little bugger

oh dear. poor sirus!! little guy, he's not even two and just made his 2nd trip to the er!! last time was in february when he was working on being a beach nurse. this time he went to children's hospital which is like not even a mile from our house. i was supposed to go swimming after werk but it took me an hour 15 to get home which meant that by the time i got to the pool i would have only 1/2 hour there and whatever i blew it off. eric was vacuuming when i got home and we were all getting ready to go for a walk. eric was stll vacuuming and seamus and i were in the bathroom when i heard it... the scuffle of the bike as we referr to the 4 wheeled plastic ride on toy of the kids, then the solid bump, then the cries. i ran right out to see poor little sirus with his hands on his face standing in a pool of blood!! i grabbed him and took him to eric right away. litle guy had bt his lip and was bleeding all over the place. i never saw anything like it. i had eric call the doctor and they said that although it likely was fine, its better to be safe especially since he fell on tile and we didn't actually see what happened. poor little guy's shirt was by this time covered in blood and tears and snot from his runny nose. i was worried about going to children's hospital because i was afraid of seeing sick or hurt little kids but it was quiet there and everyone was so incredibly nice. sirus got a bracelet and then seamus eric and i all got stickers saying we belonged to sirus. sirus was called right back into triage and then right into a room. not even 2 minutes later the doctor came in. sirus sat on my lap and was really cooperative. seamus wanted in on the action even, telling him how she hurt her foot yesterday but when the doctor asked to see it she shyed away. the doctor then tld us that he was a jr doctor and the other doctor would be in. not even 2 minutes later the senior doctor came in. wow, these doctors are so nice! ad they do such a great job! this doctors even put a tongue depresser in sirus's mouth, poked around on his teeth and everything and sirus just sat there. his teeth were ok although one on top was bleeding, and he had a hurt on his chin but he didn't seem to have a concussion and everything else seemed fine. they say that they try to avoid stitching up lips on little kids for several reasons, the main one being that it doesn't really do any good and the kids wind up tearing the stitches out anyway. plus they would have to put him under general anesthetic to do it and i just wouldn't be able to handle that at all! so, the doctor gave both seamus and sirus popsicles and sent us on our way. little guy needs to stop it!!
other news, at the 5k the other weekend, i forgot to mention that i saw my obgyn - the doctor that delivered sirus and that i went to for all the prenatal checkups for both kids. i wanted to say hi but wasn't sure if that was ok or not.

cascade edge

hot damn, that was tough. i was totally concerned since i was so sick this week. i was really really sick. rarely am i put on my arse like that. but i managed a comeback, a short run on saturday and then off to the races.
i slept terribly. have been all week. my leg has been hurting, the old snowboard injury. i thot it was gone but i think its from the cycling. it didn't bother me at all last summer, but then again, last summer the only biking i did was on race day.
woke up early and it was cold and drizzly. not fun. charity called to see if we wanted anything from the starbucks and OFCOURSE we did. so then we were off to enumclaw. it got colder and wetter. i was freezing! when i was changing into my wetsuit it was sprinkling and i really started freezing with the shivers and everything. i almost broke down crying. really. but then i would have been the cryer. but i was concerned because although i was feeling ok, i was so sick just 3 dys earlier and had i really recovered?
as eric's race was about to start he went into the water. i watched him and he seemed ok. he even looked back and said it wasn't too cold. i felt a little better. then he was off and i saw him get dunked twice in his first 10 strokes. then it was time to line up for my race. thank goodness charity was there. we went in and really the water wasn't that bad. ok, yes actually it was terrible and eric is a lier, which he admitted to later. i went under and i about passed out. but my spirits had gone up a little since getting in was the worst part. then i did something i have NEVER done, i pulled out the neck of my wetsuit and went under and filled it up. good lord i almost passed out again!! then the race was off. i was doing pretty well, going at a nice and even pace just swimming along then i crashed into the person a head of me and it was all over. rounded the first buoy and headed to the second. the nice man in the kayak came over to see if i was ok and i said i was fine, just slow. he said that its ok to be slow. around the horn i went and down the other side. then i started getting lapped by the guys who started 5 minutes ahead. then down around the bottom buoy and off for lap 2. by now i was, dare i say, almost kind of enjoying the swim. i was going slower then slow and alternating between crawl and breast but i recently learned to wear my goggles not so tight and to spit in them to keep out the fog and the lake was really nice. then the kayaker came by and asked if i was ok, yes, still slow. i decided to crawl for a while and was totally on a roll just going along feeling like i was totally kicking arse out there in the lake by myself at this point. when i finally looked up i was totally off course and the dude on the jetski was watching me. WHEN was he going to come stop me i wonder? i was all mad. finaly around the horn and back in. by the time i was headed in the water was so still. i was no longer freezing. there was a weird currant in the water tho it seemed because i didn't seem to be making any progress. FINALLY i got out of the water! and i RAN up the hill to transition!! i am pretty sure i was 2nd to last out of the water but there were still lots of ppl getting ready for the bike.
i was pretty warm from the swim and was having a tough time figuring out what to wear on the bke. i opted for arm warmers and vest but no knee warmers.
44 minutes into the race, according to my watch i was on the bike and on my way. i quickly decided that i really would have liked those knee warmers. the first few miles went by quickly but there was this one part that was down hill but i really had to work really hard to get down that hill. i thought it was me until i came up on someone and she commented the same thing that i was thinking. at mile 9 the course started to be fun! i was frozen at this point with ice blocks for feet but i was having some fun and i started catching some people even! i also witnessed someone get called out by officials for drafting but they just got a warning.
according to my watch i made it back to transition at 1:38. ERIC WAS ALREADY DONE! and standing right there. i put on my shoes, took off the vest and put on my hat. the run was a 4 lap trail run which turned out to be pretty fun. starting off i was actually pretty happy with my frozen solid feet but they and the rest of me quickly heated up but boy did i have to pee. i just chugged along and the first lap flew by! i learned later that at this point eric was getting a massage.... i tossed off my arm warmers but i was never going to get through another 4.5 miles having to pee so i jumped into the bushes and squatted right there. ahhhh, much better. i quickly caught some of the people that passed me while i was peeing and then i really started picking them off. it was tricky to tell if i was picking them off since we were doing 4 laps, but i was passing people and i was pretty excited. heading out to lap 4 they called my name over the speakers as i headed out and off i went. i felt pretty good and picked up some speed and then finally i was done! my watch said 52:54, that included the bike to run transition, i think. but regardless i was happy with my run and i was even more happy to be done. but when i crossed the line and saw eric the first thing i told him was that i am pretty sure i won't be able to do the 1/2 iron man.
now thati think about it though, i just need to slow it down. yes, even slower then today, i am worried about the bike. we drove the course yesterday and i just don't know. but its laps... and hopefully it won't be 2 degrees like today and maybe it won't be 90 like it apparantly was last year.
the kids got eric a hammock for father's day. its portable and has a stand to it so we put it up in the house. it was very relaxing but EVERYONE wants to be on the hammock so we had to put it away. :( maybe we will get some nice weather and we can take it outside!!

i'm sick!

this is baaaad. i am sick, really sick, like the flu or something. its wedensday and i need to get better by sunday for the olympic distance triathlon. ugh. right about now all my bones in my back hurt, my neck feels like it is bigger then my hips, and i feel like arse.

the day after the trail run was the 5k and i have renewed confidence. just wait!! its going to get good, if i can get over this sickness.

like mother like daughter

so today was the cougar mtn 7.5 mile trail run. i was not up for it at all. i was totally puffy from the totaly spicey enchiladas that eric made the night before and totally disappointed in the terrible apple pie i had made. but we went. lets say the enchiladas let me know they were there before the race but they were no longer a bother once the race started. i know i can go 7.5 miles but oh how i forgot that trail is so different then road. based on last years 5 miler time (i didn't even consider the 13er) i figured i would be lucky if i finished in 1:30, but thought i better mentaly prep myself for 1:45. the race started out good. the main thing that wsa different this year then last was that i aways had someone in sight in front of me and someone directly behind. last year i was by myself most of the time, in both races. at about 30 minutes i thot i might pass out it was so hard. so i decided to take a gu. i took it out of the little internal pocket of my running shorts and tore off the top. put the top back into the little pocket. tok the gu but shoved the empty part into the water bottle hand thingy. about 5 or so minutes later i realized that the little top that i tore from the top of the gu hadn;t made it back into the little pocket and was instead taking a tour of the inside of my shorts. now, you may recall what i did last year, but this year i decided to just deal.
and it was just funny. at 45 minutes i was feeling pretty good again. that may have been at the point where we had just deceneded for 5 minutes straight because not too long after that i thot i was going to die. so i walked up some of the hills and let a group of about 10 go past then i ran again. a little later and another uphill section later i let another 10 go by. i had thot my postion was good but i could see it getting worse and worse. at an hour i decided to take the other gu since i had geared up for it being another 45 minutes. as i was finishing it off i came accross a crossing and asked what the mile marker was. the lady said i had another mile and 1/2. wow! i was totaly suprised! so i started to kick it in a little, got to the water station that said only 1/2 mile left and then got to the gate that said .3 mile left then saw eric, tossed him my water bottle, sprinted past a little girl and crossed the finish line in 1:14. lets just say i was pleasantly suprised. although eric tried to burst my bubble and say it was really only 6.5, i will believe for myself that it was the whole 7.5. results are posted only up to the top 151, but a 10 yearold girl finished in 1:09. that is amazing to me. eric came in 8th overall, possibly 2nd in his age group, or maybe 4th. he did get beat by a girl though. but at least she wasnt 10.
we had originaly planned to go to the lake to swim after but it was colde and rainy and we were really tired so we came home anyway. i passed out.
tomorrow is a 5k. for this one i am actually going to warm up a little and then see what happens. it will have a big hill in it that might kill me but we will see!

here is a photo of seamus looking bad:

and sirus looking like the saddest baby ever:

me looking bad

in issaquah this year

at the lake sammish tri last year

not any more

the issaquah triathlon was this weekend and it was fun. somehow i seemed to have pulled off an 8 minute mile pace for the run! amazing. after the race i felt as though the cascade edge olympic distance race will be nothing at all. until sunday morning when i tried some more open water swimming and was tired. real tired. eric said it was ok that i was tired cuz it meant that i worked hard the day before. but it made me lose confidence again. then we went for a run and it was hot and eric made me go up hill a lot. but a little into it i felt good and although i wanted to do 7 miles we stopped at 4 because there were some kids selling lemonade and it was hot and we needed some of that.

later i took the kids to rei and sirus cried his giant crocodile tears because i took his shoes off before he could play in the treehouse they have.

so, i went swimming today and did the whole 84 laps. i am REALLY slow. when i told eric that i was slow, he reminded me that the point of the lake stevens race was for me to cover the distance which is true, but i would like to not be last. ok, whatever, but the times for last year seem really fast and my pool swim was still considerably longer then the slowest time from the event. okokok then i have to remind myself that lake stevens is a world qualifier so there will be fast people there. and then ok i JUST pulled results again and now that i know approximately how long it might take me there are some folks to might come in around the same time, so that makes me feel better. but i think its all going to work out and i am excited about the olympic distance race coming up!

i am no longer a slave to the numbers that are in my pants. i went to the banana republic and saw somw cropped jean pant things that i wanted to try on. they didn't have my size so i opted to try the next size down. they fit!! they did not look good, but they fit. i see people walking around all the time looking like i did in them, but it was not good. and despite the number on the pants, i did not make the purchase. this is a good thing. instead i got some comfy yoga pants so that i can retire the black velour maternity pants i lounge around in these days.

plans for the rest of the week: ride bike home from work tomorrow, run n' bus (maybe bike if i am up to it) to work on Friday, 7.5 mile trail run at cougar mtn on saturday, bbq in the afternoon then maybe 1/2 mile pool swim, 5k on sunday and cirling back to catch up with xtie and seamus and mom and sirus! possilbe 40 mile bike ride later that afternoon. rest, rest, rest followed by the national sales meeting at work with 2 full hours of me presenting all kinds of ad operations and data goodness!

weekend

today was my first open water swim of the season and it was damn cold. so cold that every time i stuck my face in i would hyper ventalate. damn cold. but the water was clear and all in all it was a good swim. cold though. i did my own mini triathlon but with extra long transitions with complete clothing changes and bathroom breaks!

eric did his first olympic disance triathlon yesterday. we are not swimmers. eric managed a 111 out of 191 in the swim. but dug deep into his treasure chest of courage and pulled out a 13th overall finish with a 2nd in his age group which is pretty good considering the guy who came in first in his age group is pro and all. i was all proud, eric did great!! we showed up at the race site about 20 minutes before the start of the race because we make a wrong turn AND got pulled over by the coppers. nice police man though, let us off and even gave us directions to the race site! seamus came with us but sirus stayed at grandmas. it was so windy!! seamus took refuge at one point in my coat. she also stopped to listen to the crickets.

love is

a bike seat that has "Silicone gel inserts with differentiated thickness" that have been "strategically placed around the anatomical cut out to improve comfort and relieve pressure in the frontal soft tissue area". how GROSS is that?? gross but true. man, i spent how many years on my man seat? the seat that eric told me over and over to get rid of and i would convince myself that it was great. finally i gave in and my soft tissues are thanking me.

i did a load of laundry this evening. yeah, so, its not a good idea to put a diaper in the washing machine. ugh. thank goodness it was not poopy but that diaper go is pretty gross.

seamus pulled her hammy! she was all gimpy this morning grabbing her hamstring. she got a little hammy rub this morning and eventually it got all better.

i was in ohio this weekend. wow! that was so much fun!!! i got me some photos taken. i am going to post some here so it will be apparent to all that i do not look terrible like in that photo the other day.
Seamus wanted to come to ohio with me.where would all my shoes fit? sirus was just being cute!




lisa, cary & i were a bunch of hotel posers.

allie and i ran the cleveland 10k in the morning then had some jewish brunch.

i guess i lied.

so, i just had to bask in my 3rd placeness again... and they changed the results!!! so i was 3/34 out of 30-34, but now it has been updated to be 7/71 out of 30-39. hmph. not sure how i feel about that. i do know i was 3 for at least a day. still 24 out of 259.

highly unusual

i got an eyebrow wax today. and i got a manicure. the person that did my nails was a guy. that was different. he did a good job, but it was a bit unexpected.

apparenlty

this is what i look like after coming in 3rd in my division in the 5k race this morning. i asked eric if that is really what i look like and he said no and then he laughed. he might be lying.


this is what seamus, sirus and i look like while playing chuzzle on the computer. the kids looove it!! i look concerned but maybe that is because of my sweatshirt and my pop belly?

eric has committed to helping me train for the 1/2 iron man, as a result we ran 9 miles yesterday, swam 3/4 miles and then today ran the 5k race, yes, that one where i came in 3rd and then went for a 30 mile bike ride. i am beat.

and its mother's day! here is sirus sleeping and one of seamus, too. she fell asleep hugging her book that jen sent her. by the time i ran to get the camera she had rolled around and got all pissed off, but its cute anyway!! those are not her pjs but instead what she opted to put on after we put her to bed. its not up to us any longer.

dude, getting life insurance is one of the most horrible experieinces ever. i will give more detail later.

this morning

cougar

i am turning into a cougar. this is bad. several signs point to it. pone being that i sat at a bar in krikland drinking by myself last night. i got the sense that the bartender did not beleive me that i was actually going to meet up with people.
another being that we now have a stoller that the model is cougar 2. that is twice the cougarness. more specifically it is the cougar 2 chassis. ewwww.
a while back i slurged and got myself a little coach purse. its cute and i like it. eric, on the other hand doesn't like it because he says it looks like a saggy sack. he is right, it does and it actually looks like the little hippy dippy fanny pack that i had in highschool that i would throw over my shoulder. my new saggy sack is just like that saggy sack the only real difference is that my currnt one wouldn't ever fit around my waist.
dude, work is killing me.
i decided that i needed to stop wearing such ugly lounge clothes. i either wear the same black yoga pants i have been wearing for the past 8 years or i wear my velour maternity pants. in a time of bvious weekness i icked up some BRIGHT pink terry juicy pants. BRIGHT pink. so pink that they match seamus's pants in this photo: i think these pants are cute on a 3 yr old, but i am not so sure on someone of my advanced age. especially paired with my favorite bright yellow cliff bar flaor patrol shirt. i look good.

sheesh part 2

busy busy. the past few weeks have been nutty and busy and good lord.
we took a trip to vernal utah to visit the kids's greatgrandma. it was a quick trip, leaving friday morning and geting back sunday afternon. when i woke seamus up at 445am on friday she turned to me and told me to leave her alone because she was sleeping. i then told her we were going to get on the airplane and she jumped right out of bed! both kids were really great on the plane. eric's mom came with us, too, so it was great to have an extra set of hands. originall they gave us seats all in the middle, one right infront of the other. while it was tempting to keep those we did change them so we were all in one row. after we landed in salt lake we had to ride a bus to go get our mini van. everyone loved the bus. and it turned out that everyone loved the mini van. me included. i had been looking into them recently anyway. eric is liking the volvo and doesn't want oto switch, even tho he was a minivan driver when i first met him. the drive to vernal is supposedly only 2.5 hours from salt lake, but it took us 5.5 from the time we got off the plane to when we got to vernal. we went right to vsit greatgrandma and then to our hotel. the whole trip was swo much fun. the kids spent more time outside and at parks then they usually get the chance to and that made everyone happy.
vernal does not believe in vegetables so we had none the whole time we were there. and we went to walmart everyday, sometimes more then once. good lord. but walmart in verbal is 48976123764 times better then walmart in renton.
the trip home was good but tiring. poor eric's mom had a 3 hour drive still but she made it home ok, too.
monday i went to work. tuesday i got up at 345am to catch a 6am flight to SF. i am having some issues when it comes to foot wear. i have gotten a few new pairs of shoes lately. i have tried them on at various times of day, during, before and after various activities and every pair feels fine at the store but then i get them home and they are all too small. what is totally even more lame is that in each instance i even tried on the bigger pair and each time there will be a gap at the back of my heel. so i took 3 pairs of shoes to go to sf. the pair i wore down had caused me issues the last time i had gone but they are now my best fitting, least high heeled pair, but i totally slipped and almost fell in the airport. so, i got to sf and to my hotel and thankfully they let me check in at 830am. i changed into some less dangerous shoes but man i felt frumpy. with this new hairdu and recent 43 pounds i did not want to feel frumpy when i might be running into former co-workers. so i went right to nordtrom. it doesn't open untl 930 so i had to sit there. finally it opened. there are tons of cute shoes in the world but my toenails are totaly fuct so i can't get any open toed anything. i really didn't want to buy yet another pair of plain back high heels but i did rationailze that the pair i do have don't fit and the heel is to high. so i got a pair. i opted to not get the jessica simpson brand and got the even cheaper ones. those felt fine. wore them right ouit of the store and all over sf and to the conference. until day 2. does it really matter any more about my shoes?
ok, so my favorite part of the conference was standing in line at riteaide getting some bandaides for my fuct toes ad there was an older guy al business like right infront of ne, with an 18 pack of budwiser cans. at 9am. that and somehow i managed to go to starbucks 3 times each day. i met some of my coworkers who i totally dig, and i went to dinner with allie and luan which was fun despite the foirgra. we had steak tarter. there is more to all of that story.

sheesh

eom

totally inappropriate

so eric and i had THE most inapropriate conversation the other day. sirus went to the doctors because we thot he had the pox. when you take the kids with the threat of the pox they don't let you in. i have heard at other doctors that they sneak in through the back door. but no, at our doctors they make you stay in the car and they come to you. so, eric was telling me how the doctor ws one he hadn't seen before and how the doctor was like, dude, what am i doing in this weird dude's car. i suspected that i had maybe seen this doctor myself one time and started asking eric about him. i then started the story about the time i saw him. after seamus was born i had a lot of issues with clogged ducts. this was terrible. it was painful and it burned and it was weird and itchy and aweful. so i went to the doctor. this doctor was just like hmph. and started checking stuff out. rubbing and pushing and just trying to see if there was something wrong. he then went on to tell me how he really hadn't dealt with this issue and he wanted to check with my normal doctor who was in the office but just didnt have an open appointment. so let me tell you about my doctor. she is now seamus and sirus's doctor but she is tall, blonde and really pretty. when i asked eric if he would ever go to see her for medical issues he said no way, are you crazy? so, she comes in and she is pushing and rubbing and doing all the same stuff that the first doctor did. i did n't think anything of this until eric and my totally inappropriate conversation in which i realized that the male doctor was there the entire time, probably planned it and was totally digging the girl on girl action. good lord. whatever.

good aim

diving

ninja warrior

seamus has a new favorite TV show. she loooooves to watch ninja warrior, ya know, that crazy japanese show where the people try to complete the crazy obsticle course without touching the water. she sits there watching and gives commentary the whole time, whooping it up when the people land in the "yucky water".

sirus has a tail!!!

at least that is what seamus told daddy while she watched him change sirus's diaper... she was pretty convinced it was a tail.

so, something really gross happened friday morning. i have been sick and have had a lot of gross nasties in my lungs and throat. friday morning i was coughing and a total CHUNK of gooo flew out. i could pick it up off the floor with my fingers, it was that gooey.

dude, how have i managed t gain 40 pounds since i started my new job? i thot maybe i would get the freshman 15, but 40? in 3 weeks?

those jeans that were so rediculous don't fit. well, they might but i don't want to try. buut, friday was funny because i had some rediculous jeans on all day. i had a migraine but we had plans to see the easter bunny. so i had to take action if i was going to make it through. so, luckily i had some extra jeans at work. so i changed into those right before we left. but this left me with the too tight jeans at work. which i wore today. there was some serious muffin top going on today, let me tell you.

we did get the easter bunny photos and they are very cute. except seamus looks sad, but that is expected since she had to be bribed to like the easter bunny with chocolate and eric is creeping up at us from the bushes in the back and sirus is sitting on my shirt pulling the neckline so far down that it was almost no family friendly.

ooh, beaches is on

yes, that is what eric just said. folled by, oh, there is full house.

today was fun in the cold. we helped out with the mtn bike race in capitol forest. i am totally sick so that was a bit rough, but it was fun. when i got this morning i was totally hacking stuff up while drving to the gas station. it got all hacked up, i rolled down the window to spit it out, and i totally didn't make it out the window. it dripped all down my chin and then all over the side of the inside of the car and rested on the arm rest. whatever. of course i had nothing to whipe it up with so i waited until i got to the gas station only to discover that the major globber had rolled off the arm rest and down the rest of the door. grody. that is the real reason it is unlady like to spit.

those kids are so funny, i will leave it at that for now. oh, but we did take them to see the easter bunny on friday and much to my dismay it turned into the family portrait with the easter bunny.... he gave seamus some lego like block and she took them out of the packaging and re-created the structure they had on the packaging. granted it wasn't complicated, but she is only 3, and there were probably 7 or 8 blocks to it. we were all impressed with that. sirus, too is totally picking up on things these days. all of a sudden everything has started to click and he has been picking up so many words. we have all kinds of puzzles and he can do all of them. its like a ligth went on in his head and he started to get it. so cute.

friday i rode my bike and bussed into work. a nice guy at the bus stop helped me put the bike on the bike rack since i had no idea how to do it. i am sick and won't do the run or bike and bus tomorrow, although i would like to. but i jsut am too sick.