Preparing for winter

I know I know... it's sweltering hot outside and I'm the nerd INSIDE knitting winter items. I already knitted a hat for me (and there will be more to come) and I while I really should attempt to make gloves again (using a better choice of yarn this time), I'm going to knit another pair of socks. YAY! (Did I ever mention I'm a SERIOUS nerd?)

What I'm knitting right now is a secret. There's no purpose to keeping it a secret other than I like secrets. And big reveals. Hopefully it'll be as cool as I think it will be! I knitted a test swatch the other day and I'm already in love......

The Triathlon

Well, I did it. Actually, I did it several weeks ago. I finally competed in and finished my first triathlon. I know I know, I've taken an awfully long time to write about it, but I've had a good reason. I'm sure most of you know already since most of you are friends with me on facebook, but for those of you who don't know, one of the triathletes died during the race. He was on the cycle portion of the race when a drunk/high driver hit him from behind killing him instantly. I won't go into the details, but you can click on the link to read the news article yourself.

After the news of the accident arrived at the finish line, the event coordinator decided to stop the triathlon. The only reason I got to finish was purely because I was farther ahead. The whole experience has been a strange one. I was telling Shane (who was also competing, but did not get to finish) that prior to finding out this news, the race was such an amazing experience. The competition was very small (only 325 people) and we met lots of new people while setting up our transition areas and waiting for the time to get in the water. While biking, I can't tell you how beautiful it was to be out in such a scenic area in the early morning and to constantly meet other cyclists who would cheer you on as you passed. When I got to the running stage (my weakest area) I was struggling and had to walk part of it. As I was walking, someone ran past me and said "Come on girl!! You've got this! Get movin'!" It was amazing how something so simple can get a person moving. The whole atmosphere was fantastic! I couldn't wait to do another one! Then, when I crossed the finish line, my friend Monica informed me that someone had died on their bike and they were cancelling the rest of the race. It was an eerie feeling thinking that something like that could have happened.

I haven't gone back out on my bike yet. I'm still too nervous. I'm still training, I'm just using an indoor bike for now. I'm still not sure how I feel about everything. On the one hand it's been a great experience and the journey to get there has NOT been an easy one. I had to over come a LOT of hurdles to get there. On the other hand it made me realize that this sport (and the training involved) is maybe a little more risk than I'm wanting to take. I'm still not sure.

The other day I recieved a letter including all of the times of everyone who finished (I think there was a little over 100 of us). Obviously I don't know how I did in my age group or anything, but I did really well for ME. Here are my times:

1/2 mile swim -- 15:46 (This was at a slow and easy pace -- Not too bad!)

transition 1 -- 3:56 (I took way too long to get my shoes on)

14 mile bike -- 56:06 (Once again, at a slow and easy pace. Still learning how to pace myself)

transition 2 -- 1:37 (still too long)

5k run -- 39:01 (I'm so freakin' slow)

Total time: 1 hour, 56 minutes, and 28 seconds

the guy who came in first? 1 hour and 8 minutes. that dude was fast

The Mother Load

This September Shane and I will have been married for nine years. Of those nine years we have lived in various apartments and only one included a washer and dryer -- we only lived there for 2 years. When we moved for law school, we had to "down grade" to save on money. That meant moving into a smaller apartment and either forgoing a dishwasher or washer and dryer (the cheap ones apparently only come with one or the other). Having been without both, I knew I could not live without a dishwasher again. I LOATH washing dishes by hand. The past 5 years (that's how long we've been in this apartment) have been interesting when it comes to our laundry. We typically wear an item of clothing until it's more grime than cloth. So far we still have friends and they still hug us goodbye when we leave, so apparently it's all OK. We also seem to stockpile clothes. Even if clothes don't fit or they have stains/holes in them, we still keep and wear them simply because that means we can go that much longer without doing laundry. There are only two washers and dryers in our building and they are all the way down at the end of the building. I can't tell you how deflating it is to pack up a bag of laundry, carry it down 3 flights of stairs, drag it all the way to the end of the building, just to have them full with a line of laundry baskets waiting. Ugh.... That's a major reason why we don't do laundry very often. What that also means is that once in a while I have to go to the laundry mat to do a BIG wash.

Today was that day.

I sorted, packed up, carried down 3 flights of stairs to load in the car 14 loads of laundry. That's right -- the Mother load. You might have wondered where that expression came from and now you know. 14 freakin' loads of laundry! You should have seen everybody's faces when I went into the laundry mat. What's sad is that I've done this several times before -- with the kids.

The Mother Load

The kids do pretty well at the laundry mat. They have cable TV there and what's not to love about that? That's better than Disney Land when all you have is bunny ears at home! What's funny about going to the laundry mat is that when you leave you think, "Man, I just spent 2 hours in there and came out with 14 loads of clean laundry. That's incredible!" Then you get home and haul all of it BACK up the 3 flights of stairs only to realize you still have to FOLD said laundry. Well, I've taken my break long enough and now it's back to folding. Wish me luck and hopefully I'll come out alive!

P.S. Anyone can feel free to come and help if they are looking for the best time of their lives!

Swim, Ollie, Swim!

This past Saturday I had my first swim meet with the Swim Masters. I was unbelievably nervous because everybody I swim with is incredibly fast. Fortunately my friend Tamy (who is also a newbie) decided to go as well. It was nice having someone else there who was just as nervous and just as slow as I am.

In case you are not familiar with Masters Swimming, it's a national organization that provides workouts with a coach and competitions. I only go two times a week, but they offer workouts 6 days a week. And let me tell you, they're not easy!!! Those coaches know how to work you! It was also through the Masters that I learned more about triathlons. Just about everybody on the team uses Masters to get better at their swimming for triathlons.

The girls came out to cheer me on!

My friend Tamy and I. Look at that pasty skin! Woo!

Getting ready for the 200 meter medley relay

Here's a video of me swimming the 100 meter freestyle. It's not the best footage..... apparently Isabelle kept tugging on Shane the whole time he was trying to film it. (FYI -- 100 meters is all the way down the pool and back). In the end I almost came in first, but that pesky 68 yr old lady beat me! lol! That's okay though, it's not too bad since my goggles were filled with water the whole time. I was lucky I could even see the wall at the end!

Only FIVE days left until my first
Triathlon!!!

Wish me luck!

Look whose wearing glasses now!

Kelly picked out her first pair of glasses today and couldn't be more excited! She loves that her glasses have zebra print on the inside to give it some more style. Her eyes really aren't that bad, it's just a little hard to see the board at school. Since she's a tall one, there's the chance she'll be placed in the back of the classroom and we didn't want 2nd grade to start off with frustration! So far she's in love with them and never wants to take them off. We'll see how long that lasts!

Catch-up post #3 -- Monica's 'Stache Bash

Monica and Justin

My best friend Monica is my best friend for a reason -- she's probably one of the funniest people I know. For her birthday this year she decided to have a 'stache bash to celebrate the occasion. We were all to meet up at the bowling alley with our mustaches to bowl the night away!!!! Of course, I couldn't just BUY a mustache. What's the fun in that? So, I knitted mine:


You know what the best part of that 'stache was? It was bendable!!!! We had a lot of fun bending it into different shapes throughout the night.

Here's Dixon and Denise. I thought they had the most creative mustaches of them all:



Cassandra's mustache was dubbed the Nast-a-stache. Hers was made from her own hair. Clever, but gross. Therefore, the Nast-a-stache.


Showing off my moves while bowling. You know what's funny? when I got up to bowl the first time I was truly convinced that I was a great bowler because I had been playing Wii bowling so much. Turns out virtual is NOT reality.


This is a great picture of Leah and I. I'm pretty sure we stare each other down like this every Sunday in Relief Society.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MONICA!

FHE Parker Style

For family home evening this past Monday Isabelle asked if we could do an activity that she found in a book. It was making "flowers" out of construction paper and old magazine pictures. Almost all of the flowers ended up being circles since apparently that's the only shape we all know how to cut. We probably ended up making about 15 flowers and then took them over to Kelly's Sunday school teacher's house. Below is a picture of a flower that each of us made:


1. Kelly's cat flower. To this day she is still more fascinated with pretend cats than the real one that she has.

2. Isabelle's crazy swirl flower. As she cut it out she just kept saying "Crazy!!!!!!!!!" in a weird voice.

3. Shane's dictator flower. He was trying to assert his manliness during a very feminine activity.

4. My ice cream flower. Mmmmmm..... ice cream


Maybe one of you lucky readers will receive an awesome gift like this from us one day!