Looks like I'm doing my first triathlon this weekend!

It should be interesting considering I've done 0 training for it. Brick workouts, what??

I should be good for the bike portion.. which is good since it's the first event... at least I will start off confident. I just hope I don't fall off or crash into somebody, that's all I'm worried about. That would be bad.

Then comes the run. It's only 2 miles which normally I would be all like 2 miles? pshhh that's like not even a warm-up run. But as you know I've been injured so I really kind of have no clue how it will go.

And then we end with a nice little swim. Actually, I have no knowledge of swimming or swimming lingo so I don't even know if it's a small distance. It could be like a transatlantic distance for all I know (and will probably feel like it). I don't even know how to swim competitively. My style of swimming is more like movement in water to avoid downing, so I have absolutely no idea what to expect. I'm thinking I'll be exhausted and possibly in pain already so I just hope I don't drown. Or kick anyone in the face.

So yeah, pretty excited. I've wanted to do this tri since we volunteered at it last year, I just always imagined I'd be a bit more prepared for my first triathlon, but what can you do? I hadn't registered due to my stupid nagging IT injury, but since I can now do it for free I figured why the heck not?! Even though I don't have a bathing suit. Small detail. I'm going to try running 1.5-2 miles tonight and see how it goes. If I make it out pain-free I'm thinking the tri is a definite GO! And if not, I will probably do it anyway. You are not the boss of me, IT band!!! I might even ride my bike to the park to run to see how I feel running right after biking... that's a brick workout right?

snowy saturday & ski socks

i can't believe april starts this week. i'm wondering where this year is going?! i don't wanna wish my life away, but i for one will be glad to see march go. it wasn't my happiest of months. i'm hoping april brings happier things... even if my first marathon isn't one of them, as originally planned. but cookouts with friends & family, a reunion with my tennessee friends, a couple birthdays, and maybe a little sky diving? sounds good to me. oh, and if that 70 degree weather would come back, that'd be nice too.

we woke up to this on saturday morning:

SNOW. not much, but too much at the same time. luckily it didn't stick around long but it did prevent me from riding my bike this weekend :( instead, i went to group power (weight training) and dragged josh with me, thus breaking his 4 month streak of paying for a gym membership and not going to the gym. you're welcome, B.

speaking of my B, i got to be the model for his 52 project this week. it started off as a weekly self-portrait but i guess he has gotten tired of taking pictures of himself, so this week he took a picture of me in front of the new background we got in our basement studio.

i was having a much better hair day until i accidentally took a nap. oh well, sundays are for naps so here is my nap-hair (nappy hair?) in all its glory.

here's the set-up shot, complete with my signature "model pose."

i don't know why tyra banks hasn't called me yet. clearly i am america's next top model. do you notice my socks?


they are actually ski socks because it's super cold in the basement. well, josh would argue otherwise, but it is super cold to me!

and that brings us to your favorite part of monday posts (oh, just my favorite part? oh well, whatevs) the weekly lola update!

my baby girl is getting so big! this week she has learned to jump onto the bed (which is not an easy feat!) and now kosmo has no where to escape from her! she has also taken to eating dandelions and still snores like a champ. i am wondering if she's going to be bigger than kosmo?!

awww, look how wittle she used to be! love her.

so.... that's all i got. i hope your weekends were fabulous.

sushi & ice cream.

B took me on a date tonight for some sushi.. OMG I love that ginger dressing those Japanese places put on their salad. I could drink it through a straw.

Afterwards we followed it up with some ice cream from The Homemade Ice Cream & Pie Kitchen.. can you even believe it was my first time there?! Me either, but true story.

he was being a unicorn with his ice cream cone. sometimes i don't know how i take him out in public... but he makes me laugh really hard so its okay.

I got the Reese's peanut butter and he got Oreo... then we traded... then we traded back. Both were delish.

All in all, a nice little date to end a rather mundane week. Here's to the weekend.

Flashback Friday: Most Epic Road-Trip Ever

I haven't done a Flashback Friday in awhile and with nothing else to write about, I thought it was a good time to do another one.

P.S. To make me feel better about the forecasted snow for this weekend, I put up a new spring layout on the blog! So if you're reading through Google Reader, feel free to stop by and check it out! (photos were taken last Easter, I'll update with some newer ones when we take some.. which will be whenever the snow is gone)

So, this week's Flashback Friday takes us back to Labor Day weekend of 2006.

I had just moved to Union and while I had kind of gotten to know a few of Kristen's friends, I still pretty much only knew her. Since it was a long weekend, a lot of students either went home for the weekend (even though school had only started a week earlier), or went on some sort of trip. Basically, campus was empty. Kristen had gone to Arkansas for a football game (there was a boy involved) so I was left behind with a bunch of girls I didn't really know. At about 1:00am that Saturday morning, we were all lamenting about how everyone was gone and we wanted to go somewhere, too.

Somehow, while browsing the internets, we found out that the World's Largest Fork was in Springfield, MO and it was decided then and there that we were going to take a road trip to see it in the morning. And so the most spontaneous road trip ever was born.

After a bit more research we discovered that the World's Smallest Cathedral, the World's Largest Ball of Twine, and the World's Largest Banjo were also along our route. We headed out bright and early... me, Katy, Stephanie, and Kourtney. Once we made it to Missouri, we realized we weren't far from the Kansas/Oklahoma border so of course we had to stop there to say we'd been to those states. On the way home, Stephanie (our navigator) decided that Arkansas didn't look that far away on the map, so we adjusted our route to include a stop there, except it ended up being like 12 hours out of the way. Those maps are tricky!





Stephanie and I quickly bonded over our shared love of penguins. She loves them almost as much as I do!





Behold! THE FORK! It was actually kind of hard to find, and when we stopped and asked (several different) locals for directions, most of them had no idea what we were talking about. How can you have the World's Largest Fork in your town and not know it?!?!?






It was pretty much the most epic road trip ever (hence the title). We saw everything we wanted to.. except the World's Largest Ball of Twine.. it was in the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum in Branson, MO and we thought it was too expensive. We ended up going to the wax museum and saved a whole dollar. But hey, when you're a poor college kid, that dollar is kind of a lot.

So yeah, even though it was the most random/last minute road trip ever, it was probably my most unforgettable one. Here I was, I'd just moved 5 hours away to TN (this was a big deal to me, I am SUCH a mommy's girl haha) on this trip with all these girls I barely knew. My new life in Tennessee was turning out so adventurous already! And guess what? Those girls are some of my best friends to this day.

I highly recommend spontaneous road trips. Seriously, the best.

Quiet.

It's come to my attention that I haven't updated my blog as often this week (thanks, B). My apologies for my quietness this week. On Monday I said the words weren't quite there, and they haven't really returned. Plus I've been working on some behind the scenes stuff which I'll share soon. And other than that, not much has been going on this week.

Oh, other than that SPRING HAS HAD SPRUNG! but it's gone now... and? and snow is in the forecast. BOO. I guess spring went on spring break. I hope she comes back SOON.

I've had a couple people point out to me that I'm on the front page of the Papa John's 10 Miler website.


Not sure why they thought that me -- looking all hunched over and like I'm about to die during last year's race -- would be a good thing for people to see (the very first picture, no less) when going to register for the same race. Hey that girl looks like death rolled over, let's sign up too! But hey, whatever.

I'm kinda glad I'm not signed up this year, because tomorrow morning's race forecast? 31 degrees with a 30% chance of rain. Have fun with that.

I would still like the ability to run though. That would be nice. I miss it.

That's pretty much all I have. I'll be back soon.

And hey, at least it's Friday.

Just keep pedaling.

I've been busy + just haven't really had the words to blog. I don't know what it is. Josh and I went on a nice long bike ride this weekend and our route included lots of hills. I hate hills in case you didn't know. As I was struggling to get up every one of those hills, Josh kept saying Just keep pedaling!!! (easy for him to say, he breezes right up those hills!)..... and I had a really good blog post written up in my head about how you have to just keep pedaling when the hills of life get in your way and things don't go quite the way you thought they would.

But the words aren't there. I don't feel adequate enough to compare my bike ride to life right now. So, I'll just tell you about our weekend.

It included: a 20 mile bike ride, watching E.T., lots of ice cream, a family dinner, some yoga, a bathroom makeover, peanut butter pancakes, some girl time with my momma, washing my new car (!!!), finishing all of the laundry, and a trip to the family farm...

We went to the farm this weekend for our first trip of the season! It was also Lola's first trip ever, and I think she had a blast.




It's like a family rite of passage, of sorts, and Lola has been officially sworn in. Can I say that even though I'm not officially in the family?

We accompanied Josh's dad to help him burn down some really tall grass.

And it made me all kinds of nervous, especially when Lola ran down the hill right in between little patches of fire. I was constantly gasping and frantically trying to get the dogs -- totally oblivious to the fire -- as far away from it as possible. I hope this doesn't mean I'll be one of those really nervous moms one day.

Oh well, at least my kids will be safe, right? Safe inside their little padded bubbles.

If it wasn't the fire I was trying to keep Lola out of, it was the lake. My baby girl isn't scared of anything -- not big dogs, not the vacuum cleaner, not fire, and not the lake. She ran straight down the hill behind Kosmo and got chest-deep in the lake to get a stick. I don't think we will have any problems teaching her to swim this summer. She is fearless.

Then I played with a machete.

I didn't really know what to do with it besides hold it like a baseball bat.

At the end of the evening, we had 2 pooped little doggies.

Success.

And on that note, the Lolz grew some more...



These photo shoots are getting interesting...





So that's that.
The high today is 85.
Say what?!

1 week.

Sometimes I feel like I only write about the happy things that happen, which are true but they aren't the whole story. It's not that I try to hide how I really feel when I have bad days, it's just that they aren't as fun to write about.

Today I am feeling a little bummed... pessimistic, if you will. So far I feel like if there's anything I'm supposed to learn in 2011 it's that things don't always go as planned. DUH, right? I already knew this, but I think 2011 is completely reiterating that fact. Want to train for a marathon? Sure go ahead, but NO it's not happenin', at least not when you want it to. Want a Shamrock Shake on St. Patty's Day? NONE FOR YOU. And uh, do I even have to mention the whole Tobey thing?

It's been a week today. This day last week was definitely the hardest day I've had all year (probably the last few years even). I do feel better today but maybe that's why I just feel blah over all even though I'm trying not to think about it. (Who am I kidding, I'm writing about it so obvs I'm thinking about it.)

I just feel like I have so much that I want to do this year... girls trip with Cousin, set up my office, grow a garden, run a marathon, throw a party/game night/cookout with friends & family, go sky diving, see my TN friends, go to Chicago, do a triathlon, start scrapbooking again, etc... and I feel like I can't get there. Balls are in motion but I feel like they're hitting brick walls.

Maybe it's only fitting that such an awesome year would be followed up by a not-so-great one. Not that this year is awful or there aren't fun things in store, I know we're only two and a half months in. That's just how I feel today but I'm sure my normal optimistic self will return again soon. She's just out of the office today because one week post losing her dog is a not-so-great day, for sure.

Hope you all are having better Fridays than me.

Gia the Giant

I name everything, you should know that by now.

I took my new bike (her name is Gia.. she is a Giant) out last night for her first ride... 18.5 miles and I didn't even fall off!! (and I wore green since it was St. Patrick's Day. That's the only festive thing I did because when I went to McDonald's for a Shamrock Shake THEY DIDN'T HAVE THEM!!!)
Anyway, it was awesome! I'm excited that B and I now have an exercise activity that we can do together because obvs we can't run together since well, for one I can't run right now and for two, when I can he's WAY faster than me.
The only bad part was that I was staaarving for about the last 1/2 of the ride because we went at dinner time after I had already done an hour long spin class (yeah, I spent like 2.5 hours on a bike yesterday.) So next time I will have to plan more accordingly. It's just that it was 68 degrees out and how could I not go?!
Another bike ride today, tomorrow, and every day this weekend? Yes please.
Ending this post with my girl because I love her and this is one of my favorite parts of the day... in the morning when she lays on my lap and we talk and she gives me kisses.


Happy Friday.

happy and sad.

i'm not gonna lie the past few days have not been easy, but i'm making it through. i do miss my boy though. it sucks going home and not being greeted by him. like a lot. hate it hate it hate it.

but, there have been some happy things around here lately as well. like on monday night when josh totally made my day by surprising me....

WITH A NEW BIKE!!!!!
like a bike that i get to KEEP!
it's all mine!!
and it has pink on it so it totally matches my helmet!!!

i was so surprised! and the weather is supposed to be bea-u-tiful this weekend so me sees a nice, long bike ride in the near future!

we tried to go for one on saturday after the 10k. josh was going to take me on a real bike ride (read: outside of the neighborhood) but... it was awful. the bike i was borrowing was a racing bike which meant it was a lot more uncomfortable than a regular road bike because you have to be all bent over in "race position" to even change gears and i constantly felt like i was going to fall off because i'm not comfortable on a bike anyway (i have no idea how/when to change gears or anything) plus it was super windy that day so i couldn't hear anything josh was saying and my leg was hurting from the 10k and i was still super emotional.

just not a good day for my first real ride.

but i'm super excited about my new bike!! it's a lot more comfortable and i can't wait to take it out. i think we will be great friends.

now i just gotta get over this IT band issue in the next 2 weeks so i can do the baby triathlon at the YMCA at the beginning of april even though i don't know how to swim. but i think i'm finally on the right track. on monday i went to the dr for another graston appt and OMG it was intense. i walked in and he asked what was bothering me. my IT band, duh i said (ok i didn't say duh) and he said STILL?! that thing is still bothering you?! and i was all like welcome to my world, dude. exactly how i feel.

so i don't know what he did but somehow he was hitting something different and i thought i was going to die. i guess he finally found the exact source of my pain. i wish he would have found it the first time i went because maybe i could be running by now but whatevs.

so anyway, in case you were wondering where your IT band is, i thought i would show you.

need a closer look?

that's what my IT band looked like right after i left the office. i'm not sure if the pictures do it justice but pretty much my whole upper leg is one ginormous bruise. the huge dark bruise is apparently the source of my pain. and the dr showed josh how to torture me as well because apparently i need to have it scraped 3-4 times a week. so, looking forward to that.

in other news, lolz has grown again.

when do puppies quit growing? 1 year? i wish she would stay small:) she's 17 weeks old now. she hit a milestone this week... first time she peed on someone.

and one more happy thing i found this week...

(found here)
a real life up house.. how cool.

if you have any happy things, feel free to send them my way. i could sure use them:)