Triathalon Woman

Yeah, I did it. I just finished my first sprint triathalon last Saturday. I am now addicted. It took me 2 hours and eleven minutes. I beat 6 woman and 5 men, out of about 300. Natually, that is not very good in placing, but I wasn't last, I finished and I didn't even have to crawl or be carried across the finish line. After all the working out over the last year, I was thinking I looked pretty good. Until I saw the pictures. Spandex is not my friend. So this is why you get a picture of me on my bike from a distance. I thought maybe, you wouldn't want to be scarred for life by the image. I am eager to do several more sprint triathalons, and do the Smith Mountain Lake one again to beat my own time. Hopefully Paul can do is one with me next time. I also have begun to enjoy biking. I am going to start going out on Saturday mornings for a 21 mile ride. Yes, I will become one of those biker pedestrians that everyone hates. I promise not to wear spandex or people will crash on the road!

ARGGG

Okay, I am definately computer challenged. I have been trying to figure out how to make a picture come up with my post. I know I did it before, but my brain has a bad way of deleting information, or maybe it doesn't transfer it from month to month. Paul says my memory is going, because I bring up memories that he doesn't remember. I think that means he doesn't have a memory.
We saw ourselves on the beach in about 30 years. There was an older couple out there. The husband has gone out into the water. The waves knocked him down and he could 't get up. His wife was out there laughing at him. She offered her hand to help him up, but he was too stubborn to take it. So the waves kept knocking him down every time he tried to get up. She was having a good laugh. That whole scenario would definately be the two of us in a few years.

April Showers

This month has been wonderful so far. Paul surprised me and bought me a ticket to come spend four days with him while he was in Tampa for a conference. It was so fun and relaxing. The weather was so warm and we walked on the beach and held hands, laughed and talked like we haven't in years. I love him so much more now than I did when we got married almost 19 years ago.

March Madness

Well, March came and went and I earned the March Mean Mom Award. We had to have Hobbs put to sleep, (on Paul's Birthday), and I took Spencer to get his wisdom teeth out. I should say that I was more stressed out about those things than the kids seemed to be.
I was very worried about the affect that having Hobbs put to sleep would have on the kids, mostly Camille. She seemed to do very well. We miss him very much. It was a very difficult thing for me to do. I cried all the way there and back. It was the right thing to do though and we are counting on "Families are Forever" to see him again.

Hobbs

This blog is for Hobbs. He has been a loyal dog to our family. He is messy, slobbery and has a problem with gas. Sometimes it is bad enough to clear a room. He is also a big chicken. When you hear the phrase "scared of his own shadow" you can think of Hobbs. Yesterday there as something on the floor that he wanted to eat. (Cats are messy too!) He was standing just in the right light, that the drool hanging down from his jaw, that cast a shadow. Every time he moved it would swing back and forth and the shadow would naturally move. He tried to look away from it, but it seemed to follow him. After about 5 minutes of trying to get to the food with the shadow getting in his way, he back slowly away. I had a good laugh watching our big chicken.

That being said he has been perfect for our family. We have had many laughs at his expense. Camille loves him and he can do no wrong in her eyes. Lately he has been slowing down quite a bit from arthiritis in his hips and various growths around his body. At the age of ten we are not sure how much longer he will be with us. I have stated many times, he is our last dog. I will stick with it, unless Paul breaks down and looks into Camilles brown eyes. He has a hard time telling his only girl "no". I will have to have a practice session with him.

BUSY BUSY

February has been crazy. Paul came home from Bahrain for a couple of weeks and we went skiing. Actually the kids and he did, I sat home and played with the fire. I was scared that I would mess up my knees skiing, which would put me behind for training for my Triathalon in May. They had a great time and I did too. I like to play with matches!!

Seminary is going great! I am exhausted though, trying to read a whole book in four days and trying to teach is. The kids know more than me sometimes.

I am stealing an idea from my friend Laurie. She is starting to put things on her page that she is grateful for. So my first one is ladders, stools, and chairs that I can stand on. I have decided to changes things in my house and the first thing to go, is a bunch of greenery on top of our book shelves. Also a whole bunch of wooden animals that Paul has collected over the years with his travels around the world. (Sorry Paul, they are being banished with the rest of your strange african masks up in the attic. Maybe you can build a shelf for them in the shed! )

So, the ladder came in handy that day...

I am also thankful for locks, so that I can lock up the computer room after about 9:00 at night! Not that any of my kids would even consider going on after I am asleep.

Spencer is busy doing lots of band activities. He drives the "cool" mini van everyday to school so I don't have to drive him back and forth. HAHA! How many of you would have been grateful to drive a mini van at that age?

Eric is Eric. He has recently started asking when he could get a job, and since I found out that he could at 15, I will work on that. It would be good for him. He starts driving in April, I will call all of you so that you can stay home that day!

Camille is busy doing anything that is movement. Every weekend she wants to go skating. She is in an acrobatics class and is doing very well. She is more flexible than I ever was!

Military MOM muscles (MMM)

Well, if I had a digital camera, (hint to Paul), I would have taken a picture of me dismanteling the water bed in Eric's room. It took me two days to tug and pull to get the mattress off the frame and onto a sheet and then drag it out into the hall, where I let Spencer help me drag down the stairs and out to the garage. (Yes, Laurie Miller, I know this is a run on sentence!) After all that hard work I logged it in as a workout at the YMCA on fit linxx. Since there wasn't a category for that kind of a work out, I logged it out as 'rowing'.
Seminary has been slim pickings for attendance this week with attendance. We studied the Book of Judges. I have always liked the story of Deborah and how she and another lady named Jael, nailed two mens heads to the ground with a tent stake. Actually in the first story the knock his head off first!! Does that mean I am morbid? GOOOO Deborah!!! I also think that it is funny in a couple of chapters later that a man doesn't want to go down in history with people knowing he was killed by a "woman", so he asks someone else to do it. ( I thought Laurie would like this feminist remark!)
And since I want to leave this on a positive note, I will say that none of the three animals peed in MY house today!! (That excludes the three that walk on two legs!)

Weren't they adorable!!! I wish I could go back!!!

Here I am after my first 5 miler. Not too bad, I only have about 18 weeks to go until the big raced day. Camille made it into jazz band. She will be on the piano and is most likely to only 6th grader in the band. She has listened to Spencer the last several years with the trombone and was really torn about being in the orchestra and the band. She chose orchestra and is excelling with the Violin. Now she gets to have both by doing jazz band. It will be two days a week before school and very excited!!

This is a typical image of Camille every night at dinner ! The girl likes to laugh and it is so contagious that eventually we all end up laughing.

"Here is proof that Eric did once know how to smile!!!"

Where was I when they were so small? I wish I could go back in time or start all over again.!!

Yeah Me!!!

This is my first blog!!! I think this is going to be so cool! I would like to keep in touch with family and friends---(and you all know how much I like to touch people) and let you take a peek into our exciting, perfect lives!! HAHA!

Paul has been scanning pictures on the DVD in all his spare time in Bahrain and it has made me miss the time when the boys were small. (Ten years ago, I would have never seen that coming!)
So I will post an occasional picture that I like.

I am busy doing seminary and LOVE it. The Old Testament Rocks! I am also trying to fill my time with Paul being gone, so I am training for my first sprint triathalon. I am crazy, but making progress. The race date is May 3rd!! Today for the first time I ran 5 straight miles. It may not seem like a lot to you marathon runners, but I did it and even managed to drag myself out of my car after my drive home. Right now I am in a recliner and have to wait for the kids to come home from school to bend my legs to get out of it, but I still did it!