The Rookie Tri

This Sunday is Mother's Day, and while mothers all across the land will be sleeping in and enjoying breakfast in bed I will be participating in my first triathalon, The Rookie Tri.  I am excited and a little nervous as well.  After training for and completing the Zooma half marathon and posting about it here, and then doing the Bluebell Fun Run and posting about it here I started packing and stopped running or swiming or biking much at all.  But about a week and a half ago I decided I should get with it.  The good news is the distances of this tri are short, so I think I can complete the tri with no problem.  And the other good news is it is my first tri, so I will set a PR (personal best result) for this distance.  :)  I have put in some good training this week, so we will see what happens Sunday.  Stay tuned.  I will let you know.  Here are a few pictures from last year's Rookie.  My husband was a participant.

Strawberry Pickin'

Cameron and I always go strawberry pickin' this time of year at Sweet Berry Farms in a nearby town.  We love it!  The strawberries are sooooooo delicious and picking fruit you did not have to plant and worry about is the best feeling.  My husband is a want-to-be farmer, so it satisfies his urge to participate in the agricultural process, somewhat.  This year we were delighted to be invited by some friends to join them on their trip!  What fun!  We not only enjoyed strawberries but we also got to catch up with friends we don't often get to see.  If you live in the area we would recommend taking a little trip out to the farm.  Check their website and blog for the most up to date information about the berries.  June brings blackberries and the fall brings pumpkins.  We are planning a blackberry picking party with Cameron's grandmother and some other friends who usually go with us to the farm. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Let the Packing Begin!

Well we are still not 100% sure where we are going to live yet, but as of May 12th we will be out of this house.  That leaves us only 2 weekends before we will walk away from this house for the last time.  This was our first house where so many firsts happend for us, but that is another post.  Today I can't stop and reflect because I have to GET TO PACKING!  Last night I could not sleep.  I am not sure why.  Was it the caffne I had at dinner? the anxiety of moving? the burden on my heart for Chrissie and her family?  I don't know for sure.  I used my unexpected awake time to pray and start to pack.  I finally was able to fall asleep at 4:15am!  I am not feeling too tired this morning.  I hope that is true for the rest of the day, and I hope tonight i can fall asleep.  Otherwise, I might have the whole house packed up by the end of the week.

The Zoo

A little know fact about me:  I have a Commercial Drivers License.  I had to take a written test all about how to drive a 18 wheeler and what to do with emergency flares if you have a blow-out.  I failed it the first time.  That kinda hurts because I haven't failed many test in my life, especially ones I have studied for, but it's good for me to fail test every once in a while.  Anyway I took it again and passed!  Then I had to do the drivng test.  I was going to be driving our church's bus, so I drove that for the test.  It is a 26 passenger bus, so not the big full-blown school bus, but big for sure.  It is really not hard to drive.  If you can drive a truck with a trailer attached, which I am very good at, you can drive a 26 passenger bus.  The hardest thing about the test is you have to parallel park the bus!  I did it,thanks to a guy from our church who was patiently worked with me on it, but let me assure you I would walk 5 miles before I parallel parked the bus.  Seriously!  So what does all this have to do with the zoo?  I am glad you asked.

Our kids choir at church called KidzPraiz had a field trip scheduled for Saturday to the Austin Zoo, but had to bus driver to drive them.  My husband was going to be out of town so I did not volunteer because Little Britches's carseat can't go on the bus very well.  But no one else volunteered.  I didn't want the kids to NOT get to go to the zoo, so I volunteered and had a friend who works with the kids choir follow along behind the bus in our car with the carseat safely buckled in the backseat.  The trip was a little rushed since the choir kids were not that interested in really observing the animals.  They mostly wanted to run by each cage to say they saw each animal and then quickly get to the petting zoo where they could give away their animal feed.  We had a good time and got to practice some baby sign language.  I was wondering if Little Britches's thought her mommy was crazy for doing the pig sign at the thing we saw on Saturday and the cute stuffed animal she has.  I mean if I was a baby I would be thinking, "You have got to be kidding!  Those two things don't look anything alike!" 

Here are a few picturs from our trip:

Look at these guys!  They are bigger than Little Britches!

Little Britches and Momma, having a good time!

Me and my monkey, Mortimer.  I brought him along see he could meet his cousins.

Look at this big kitty cat with the pretty spots!

My best bud likes ducks, so I took a picture of a real one for her.  Here ya go, Annie.

Whew a day at the zoo is tiring!  I need a nap!

 

Bluebell Fun Run

This time last Saturday I was in the middle of running the Blue Bell Fun Run 10K through the beautiful Brenham, Texas countryside.  The whole family participated in the race.  It was our first family race.  My husband decided to run with me instead of at his usual 8 minute a mile pace or faster.  These days I hang between the 9 and 10 minute a mile pace.  It was fun to run a race together!  I hope we do fun races like that.  My goal was to finish in an hour, but I finished in 1 hour, 1 minute, and 7 seconds.  Close so close!  I have my sights set on racing next weekend, but will it be another 10K or a 5K?  I am not sure yet.  We will see.  Anyway...here are a few pictures from race day.

The whole gang from left to right: Josie with Mayzie, Elisabeth with Annie, me, Cameron, Andrea, Nathan, and Kenzie.  We all ran except Josie who so kindly babysat Annie so Elisabeth could run without having to push the stoller. 

The Heart is a Precious Thing

We have a family in our church whose ministry is adoption.  They are such a picture of Christ to our body.  Last year they adopted a little girl with heart problems they knew would require surgery.  Yesterday was the surgery and it did not go smoothly.  Chrissie, the little girl, is on machines to keep her alive right now.  Would you join me in praying for her and her family?  You can follow her story here.  I have posted a picture of her precious face so when you pray you can have her sweet smile in mind. 

What a week!

Last week was quite the week!  We had people come look at our house twice on Monday!  They were the same people looking and they offered us a contract by Tuesday!  Our house was on the market exactly one week!  On Tuesday our realtor, Burt, came and discussed the offer with us.  We felt it was a bit low, so we counter offered and it was accepted!  Burt lead us through the process like the pro that he is.  He asked us if we were surprised that the house had gotten a contract so fast.  We said we were not surprised because we had specifically prayed that the house would sell fast as confirmation that we needed to sell our house.  But on the other had we hadn't COUNTED on it getting a contract so fast.  We had mentally prepared for 59 days, which is the average days on the market for our neighborhood.  Why do we do that?  Pray for one thing but prepare ourselves as if God will not answer?  Anyway by the time Burt called us to say the counter off had been accepted Cameron and I were having an adventure of a different kind.

On Tuesday evening Cameron's mom came over to keep Little Britches while we went out.  It just so happened it was the day we got a contract on the house so we were going to sit down, enjoy dinner, and discuss our future plans.  But before any of that could happen life took over.  Cameron had come home from work not feeling well, so he made a doctor's appoitment for Wednesday morning, but by the time our realtor left our house and I had given grandma instructions about bed time Cameron had called the after hours clinic because he was feeling worse.  Our appointment was at 6:20 and every minute that went by saw an increase in pain.  It was heart-wrenching to see your beloved in so much pain but unable to do anything.  Cameron did some labs, talked to the doctor, did some more labs, an x-ray, and talked to the doctor some more.  All the while his pain was intensifying and then, after using the bathroom, subsiding until finally it did not intensify as much.  We were sent home with a diagnosis of kidney stone and possible infection.  It turned out to be both.  Cameron came right home and went to bed with the help of some Vicodin.  He stayed home from work the next day because he wasn't feeling great yet.  However, miracle of miracles, he was feeling so good on the second day he was able to eat a KFC Double Down.  See his post about it here.  Now we are looking at houses trying to think about packing up and movin' out.  What a week, I say!