Alli LOVES her trip to the haircutters to get all fancied up with ribbons and glitter. She claims she needs a haircut about every other day now ...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Mama's Coming Home!
Well, tomorrow's my last day here at Camp LaJolla. Really needed the break from mommy-hood to regain control over my body, mind, and spirit, but am now SO ready to come home to my loving family!
Here are a few pictures of Alli enjoying life without mommy, cooking, playing, eating milk-and-cookies ... she's had a great time with her grandmas and her Aunt DeeDee, but it's Mommy's turn to play!
Stroller walks with 'Baby' and Charlie
Who's DeeDee's big helper?!
Making Paper Mache bumble bee and butterfly with DeeDee
Making Eggs and eating cookies!
(see video of her making the cookies in column to the right!)
Charlie's been enjoying the good life too while Mommy's been gone:
Charlie loves feeding himself. His finger-food menu has now expanded beyond Gerber Veggie Puffs to Ritz Crackers and Cheerios. Mmmmm... That's a happy baby!
Charlie has this one curl right in the middle of his forhead. When DeeDee is being silly, she likes to put gel in it and give him a mohawk! That boy's ready for the skatepark!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
My First Triathlon: Mission Accomplished!
Okay, I can now breathe a HUGE sigh of relief, sit back and relax, and catch up on the blog now that this huge thing is over. I don't even know where to start. It was just such an incredible, difficult, emotional, amazing day, I have 1000 thoughts running through my head, and am way too tired to put them in any sort of order! My roommate Erin went along on the camp "cheering" bus, and got some great photos for me, I appreciate that so much, because now I have something to post! 
Listening to pre-race instructions, and looking calmly at the ocean before the big waves came in ...
The most noteworthy thing of the day was the tsunami-scale waves that decided to pound the shore just as the guy blew the start whistle. Seriously. 15 feet high. No joke. As he was briefing us for the race, we were watching the waves, and they were 'normal' ... we had a chance to get in the water and get wet so our bodies were accustomed to the temperature. Then we all lined up on the beach ready to go. I automatically went to the back of the pack because that's what the slower swimmers do so you're not getting trampled on by all the fast swimmers trying to pass you. As the race starts and we all run into the water, it's normal to have to push through and withstand a few breaking waves until you get past the surf into the open water. What we went through was NOT normal. Suddenly we were getting POUNDED by wave after wave, one 15-foot wall after another.
That's me on the far left of the picture in the white swim cap thinking to myself: Holy fill-in-the-blank! What have we gotten ourselves into?!
One of the people watching from shore said it reminded her of the titanic in the movie when the ship is tipped up verticle and bodies are just free-falling through the air down to the water ... our bodies were getting picked up by these waves and we were just falling off of them, if not getting pulled through them! I would try to push through it, but it was so big and so powerful, it would pull you under, slam you on the bottom of the ocean, then push you back onto shore, cancelling all the effort you had used to get 1/2-way into the ocean. I withstood this about 4-5 times, and threw my hands up in the air, asking God how I'm supposed to get through this? Then I heard the voice of a guy on shore saying "There's one more big one, then you guys are good to go" ... well, actually there were 2 more big ones, but hearing him say that reassured me that there was an end to this hell, and that I could do this. But with all of my fear of swimming and the ocean, once I got past those walls-of-terror, swimming seemed like such an easy task! Went out 200 yards, circled the gigantic bouey and swam back... faced a similar but not as drastic pounding when coming into shore, but since it was "coming home" there was light at the end of the tunnel that pulled me through. Ran in, put my shorts/socks/shoes on, and ran the mile on the beach. uneventful. easy (on the packed sand). Then had to run what was really another 1/4-mile through the deep soft sand to get to the street and hop on the bikes. That was the next-most difficult part, getting through that deep sand when your legs and your lungs are screaming that they have nothing more to give.
Running ... Now that the swimming was over, I've never been so happy to be running in all my life!!
Once I made it to my bike, threw on my team t-shirt and helmet and I was off. It was such a relief to be at that point, I wasn't in much of a hurry. The bike route took us onto the Navy base, and on a frontage road that was bordered on one side by the ocean and the other side by the end of the runway. Right as I was passing by the end of the runway, a huge C-141 took off right over my head. Seemed like I could reach out and touch it. It was quite an emotional moment for me. This was a beautiful area, so I told myself to take time to take it all in.
All Done! I can smile again! :)
We had such a huge support group that came from the camp, it was so much fun to cross the finish line to all the cheers and the high-5's. The divisions are split up by age, so being the "old" one of my team, I was competing in the 30-40 group. All of the rest of my team was competing in the 20-30 group.
Anyway, fancy that, I got 3rd place for my age group and won a bronze medal!! I can put that with all of Dan's wrestling medals! :P We all got a participation medal too, so I was walking around jingly all morning with my medals.
Listening to pre-race instructions, and looking calmly at the ocean before the big waves came in ...
The most noteworthy thing of the day was the tsunami-scale waves that decided to pound the shore just as the guy blew the start whistle. Seriously. 15 feet high. No joke. As he was briefing us for the race, we were watching the waves, and they were 'normal' ... we had a chance to get in the water and get wet so our bodies were accustomed to the temperature. Then we all lined up on the beach ready to go. I automatically went to the back of the pack because that's what the slower swimmers do so you're not getting trampled on by all the fast swimmers trying to pass you. As the race starts and we all run into the water, it's normal to have to push through and withstand a few breaking waves until you get past the surf into the open water. What we went through was NOT normal. Suddenly we were getting POUNDED by wave after wave, one 15-foot wall after another.
That's me on the far left of the picture in the white swim cap thinking to myself: Holy fill-in-the-blank! What have we gotten ourselves into?!
One of the people watching from shore said it reminded her of the titanic in the movie when the ship is tipped up verticle and bodies are just free-falling through the air down to the water ... our bodies were getting picked up by these waves and we were just falling off of them, if not getting pulled through them! I would try to push through it, but it was so big and so powerful, it would pull you under, slam you on the bottom of the ocean, then push you back onto shore, cancelling all the effort you had used to get 1/2-way into the ocean. I withstood this about 4-5 times, and threw my hands up in the air, asking God how I'm supposed to get through this? Then I heard the voice of a guy on shore saying "There's one more big one, then you guys are good to go" ... well, actually there were 2 more big ones, but hearing him say that reassured me that there was an end to this hell, and that I could do this. But with all of my fear of swimming and the ocean, once I got past those walls-of-terror, swimming seemed like such an easy task! Went out 200 yards, circled the gigantic bouey and swam back... faced a similar but not as drastic pounding when coming into shore, but since it was "coming home" there was light at the end of the tunnel that pulled me through. Ran in, put my shorts/socks/shoes on, and ran the mile on the beach. uneventful. easy (on the packed sand). Then had to run what was really another 1/4-mile through the deep soft sand to get to the street and hop on the bikes. That was the next-most difficult part, getting through that deep sand when your legs and your lungs are screaming that they have nothing more to give.
Running ... Now that the swimming was over, I've never been so happy to be running in all my life!!
Once I made it to my bike, threw on my team t-shirt and helmet and I was off. It was such a relief to be at that point, I wasn't in much of a hurry. The bike route took us onto the Navy base, and on a frontage road that was bordered on one side by the ocean and the other side by the end of the runway. Right as I was passing by the end of the runway, a huge C-141 took off right over my head. Seemed like I could reach out and touch it. It was quite an emotional moment for me. This was a beautiful area, so I told myself to take time to take it all in.
All Done! I can smile again! :)We had such a huge support group that came from the camp, it was so much fun to cross the finish line to all the cheers and the high-5's. The divisions are split up by age, so being the "old" one of my team, I was competing in the 30-40 group. All of the rest of my team was competing in the 20-30 group.
Anyway, fancy that, I got 3rd place for my age group and won a bronze medal!! I can put that with all of Dan's wrestling medals! :P We all got a participation medal too, so I was walking around jingly all morning with my medals.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
A Day at the Park
So today the kids had so many visitors, they were in hog heaven with all the attention. Daddy, Auntie Deb, Uncle Tom, and Pilar (and their two doggies) were all on-hand for a fun-filled day at the park in Pleasanton that has the cool climbing wall, water features, etc., etc.
Alli trying to show Charlie
how to wash his hair in the water fountian ...
...then doing it for him ... what a helpful big sister! (poor Charlie!)
Alli helping to walk Uncle Tom and Pilar's doggies ...
Thank you to all my supportive friends and family!
Thank you so much to all my friends and family who have been sending me cards/flowers/pictures to support and encourage me during what has been a really tough 4 weeks for me. 2/3 of the way done feels good, and I never could have done it without the encouraging words you send to inspire me. I get such joy at mail call, it really pulls me through the tough days. I have the best friends and family of anyone! I love you guys!
THANK YOU!
4 Weeks Down, 2 To Go, wa-hoo!
Well, another week over which means I'm one week closer to coming home! Can you tell I'm finally getting really homesick?! Dan and the kids are doing so many fun things that I'm missing out on! And of course Charlie is changing by the minute. Sounds like we need to install more cabinet locks for our little explorer!
Anyway, the coming week will be filled with more intense training for this dang mini-triathlon thing I somehow got myself roped into. My fear of swimming has me at a point where I've never loved running so much! I'm still facing panic attacks every time we practice our swimming either in the pool or in the ocean. (My sister is convinced this must be due to some deeply buried childhood trauma). My goal is just to survive the swimming portion, and the rest will be so easy. We'll have ocean swims in the mornings this week at 6, and our regular triathlon training practice from 2:30-5 every afternoon. In between we'll get to do all our other normal classes.
This is my last week of high anxiety. By this time next week, the race will be over, and I will have spent the afternoon shopping, and all will be right with the world again! I'm really looking forward to being able to ENJOY my last week here, and not dread the rigorous training schedule we have been facing. The good thing about it though, it sure whips your butt into shape!
Anyway, the coming week will be filled with more intense training for this dang mini-triathlon thing I somehow got myself roped into. My fear of swimming has me at a point where I've never loved running so much! I'm still facing panic attacks every time we practice our swimming either in the pool or in the ocean. (My sister is convinced this must be due to some deeply buried childhood trauma). My goal is just to survive the swimming portion, and the rest will be so easy. We'll have ocean swims in the mornings this week at 6, and our regular triathlon training practice from 2:30-5 every afternoon. In between we'll get to do all our other normal classes.
This is my last week of high anxiety. By this time next week, the race will be over, and I will have spent the afternoon shopping, and all will be right with the world again! I'm really looking forward to being able to ENJOY my last week here, and not dread the rigorous training schedule we have been facing. The good thing about it though, it sure whips your butt into shape!
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