#74 — Participate in a triathlon

You might remember THIS POST about the duathlon I was participating in.

My task this month was to bike 90 miles and swim 6 mies.

The biking was cake. No worries.

Swimming, on the other hand, kicked my butt to the next county and back. There were a few days that I wasn't sure if I would be able to finish all of my swimming before today.

But today is here and I DID IT!!!! Swimming complete, biking finished.

So today I check off an item from my bucket list. I have to admit, when I added this, I was thinking of an event where you do it all on one day in a timed fashion. But I think this counts. :)

There was one slight down side to this, though. My racing suit comes in 2 pieces. The bottom piece fell out of my bag Saturday afternoon. When I realized and asked on Sunday, they said they didn't see it. Nothing else. This morning when I asked, they said "We donated everything in the lost and found to Goodwill" .... GASP. WHAT???? It'd been less than 48 hours. So I trekked to Goodwill this morning, explained my case to the very understanding manager and left a description of the lost item. We'll see what happens. I'm hoping St. Anthony really pulls it through here.

Babysitting

I believe Erik is thinking "how can I get out of diaper duty?"


Theodore rocked out feeding himself. Erik had to lent a tiny hand, though.


I had to leave for 20 minutes to run an errand. Before I left, I got Theo settled in our bedroom. He cried for a bit, then was all quiet. I come home and there's no Erik to be found. I go into the bedroom to find this. Big bed, little Theodore and Erik balancing on the edge. Whaaattt???

Erik said the moment I left the house, Theo started fussing. Then full out belly wails. He went in, snuggled up and rubbed his belly. And they both fell asleep.

For those of you mommies out there wondering, yes, we rent Erik out to assist with putting babies to sleep. ;)

Pet randomness

One of the dog's biggest offenses is sneaking into our master closet and eating the cat's food. So, I guess the cat figured 'what goes around comes around' and decided to check out Bailey's dinner one night.


Erik tries to stir up conflict. By placing the bone near the cat. Oh brother!


Esse has a thing for soft/silky/nice fabrics. Evidently so does Bailey ... whenever the silky pillow is on the floor, you can bet she'll be leaning on it.

Crossover — Serena + Luke

Goodness ... I've spoiled you with posts the last week or so. Here's another from today:


Serena and Luke's Engagement teaser.

I was shooting so quickly that once I was back here editing, I thought ... crike, I should have had him kneel and kiss her hand. How nice would that have been? Sheesh. One of these days I'll think of EVERYTHING while I'm shooting. Until then ....

(I included the above comment for my friends out there who think "Karen is perfect and can do no wrong." ... I'm always trying to come up with something new or think of how I could have made something awesome even better. Guess I will remember next time, eh?).

Things are a bit chaotic around here. I had 2 friends pass away in a 7 day span (both in their 30s .... young, young, young). One funeral down, one to go. Also in a wedding very soon .... so I might or might not have any sort of update over the next week.

Sis + Snow

My sis works in/around snow .... CLICK HERE to go to her blog and see what she's been up to. The bottom photo is totally killer!

Dog wash

Bailey's been with us about 2 months, and as a dog, she sometimes gets stinky. So slowly, I started inviting her into the bathroom and giving her treats for climbing into the tub. Sometimes I'd turn the water on and let her see it run. We did this for almost a week before breaking out the doggie shampoo.


She was curious, but I think she knew what was coming.

Overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought. She was fairly agreeable.


But she has the weepy dog look down. Serious puppy eyes.

Initially, she was scared of my hair dryer. She'd see it and run away, but Erik used it on her and it seemed to work OK. Now, when I'm drying my hair, she'll come in and stand under me and let me blow it on her a little. As long as it doesn't go into her face, we're all good.

Doggie Daycare

My sister dropped Theodore off with us a few days ago so she could take care of some big people errands without her little helper.


When he came over, Theo was sleeping in his car seat. Even though he was covered, Bailey knew something was up. She could smell another person, but was puzzled because she couldn't see him.


We adopted Bailey from a home with 3 kids. Needless to say, she LOVES kids. And misses "her" kids. Theodore is a LOT smaller than her kids were, but she wanted to love all over him! We kept it to sniffing and (minimal) doggie kisses.

Super-sized it

Remember THIS POST? Erik thought he had a king sized bed, but we really had a queen. After 2+ years of fighting (sometimes quite literally -- just ask my friends, I steal pillows and will whine at you in the middle of the night), we have super-sized our queen.

Before:

After:

I KNOW a king is bigger ... but we've not slept on one for a long period of time ... and it has made SUCH a big difference! It also takes up a LOT more room than before (notice how much closer the side tables are to the wall?). It's also higher, which has been a bit of an adjustment for me.

Snowblower, old school style

We inherited this snow blower from some friends of Erik's parents. I think the friends moved into a retirement community and had no use for it, so it ended up in our hands.

It hasn't exactly worked, so this summer we took it to the lawnmower place and they waved their magic wand over it. We just had to wait for it to snow. And we waited and waited. Finally it snowed ... and Erik fired it up and went to town! Beats the heck out of the back-breaking work snow shoveling can be. :)

Since we have 3+ inches of snow outside, I almost busted it out this morning, but it's darn loud (and the snow's still coming down), so I guess I'll wait until Erik comes out of hibernation to start clearing the driveway.

In other exciting news, the snow did NOT stop me from using my brand new miter saw this morning. Where there's a will, there's a way. And the saw was a part of starting baby plants for the garden!!!! (yes, snow on the ground and I"m thinking of gardening. I gotta stay warm somehow).

#103 — Get signed up for a State of Kansas library card

As I was writing Saturday's post, I looked down the list and saw I'd completed another Bucket List item and hadn't realized it!

103. Get signed up for a State of Kansas library card so I can download audio books w/o having to go to the library to get them.

I don't remember quite how I stumbled upon the Kansas State Library's Web site, but it has a TON of electronic books for "loan." It's actually a pretty darn neat system. Initially you can sign up for a trial period, but then you have to actually go to your library and get a card. For some reason, I thought it would be an involved process and kept putting it off. But it took less than 2 minutes. Seriously!

Feel free to peek at some of their audio book selection by CLICKING HERE. There's a little catch. I'm on a Mac and there's not as many books available to listen on your Mac. Yet when I called and talked to a person (I was having technical trouble), he assured me the ability to universally listen to them all was soon coming. We'll see.

Happy Monday! :)

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

Just thought I'd share my favorite Super Bowl commercial of all time :)



Genius!!!!

Tri/Bi/Du-athlon

On my bucket list is to participate in a triathlon (again) as a team member (read: I don't want to run). When my local YMCA announced its annual February triathlon with the option to NOT participate in one of the three events, I thought "this is for me!" ... so I'm counting it as a bucket list item. Because my original objective was do to a triathlon without the running. ;)

Which brings me to the name of the event. The Y has it listed as a Tri/Biathlon. Right? Makes sense?

A friend so kindly pointed out the actual meaning of Biathlon as: "a composite athletic contest consisting of cross-country skiing and rifle sharpshooting." Hmm....not exactly the intent of the club, I'm sure. But brings me a little grin.

The way the Y has it set up is you can choose from several levels, starting at 3 mile swim/20 mile run/60 mile bike (you have all of Feb to do it). I thought "I could easily do the swim and bike, but the point is to challenge yourself." Which means I went to the next level: 6 mile swim and 90 mile bike. I used to swim summer league, so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. And I've biked 90+ miles in one day before, so I knew that wouldn't be trouble. And it hasn't been (so far).

Here's the rub, though. I've easily done 2 sessions of 12 miles on the bike. Cake. On Friday, though, I decided to do a little swimming (1 mile = roughly 1600 meters). When I'd swim leisurely before, swimming 1000 meters was about par for the course. I wouldn't be too winded, could swim 200-300 consecutively, no problem. WELL ... let me just say IT AIN'T SO EASY AFTER PUTTING IN ALMOST AN HOUR ON THE BIKE. After 50 meters (down and back), I was huffing and puffing. Seriously. After 100 meters, I decided swimming an entire mile/1600m was unrealistic for the day. I felt like I was wimping out and only did a half a mile. When it was all said and done, I huffed and puffed my way into the hot tub in the ladies locker room and collapsed. Maybe this isn't going to be as easy as I thought?

My goal is to keep powering on the bike, and maybe work up to more time in the pool. But if I keep going at my current biking pace, I should be able to finish off the biking in about another week and a half, which will still leave me plenty of time (and energy!) to tackle the swimming.

A very important date! :)

Let's just say it was an insane first month of the year. Lots of showers. Wedding showers, baby showers ... you name it! Good times! :)


Set up the table. The greenery seemed a little bit mad ... and because it was a "Mad Hatter's" themed party, it seemed appropriate.


Since this was a tea party, a Mad Hatter's Tea Party, at that, I went with a sewing theme. Thread, buttons, thimbles. All that sort of stuff.

For the decor, I just raided the basement. Grandma's sewing stuff fit the bill!


This is one of mom's tea pots. More for decor than anything else. Added some ribbon for a little excitement.


More details.


All sorts of buttons. :)


Thread. Cute.


Mom made cucumber sandwiches. They were small + cute.


I took over the kitchen for baking. I had 2 assistants. We made Cream Puffs, Cherry Bombs (above), and another little pastry.


Susie + Jackie were my baking assistants. :) This was during the gift-giving portion. With this group there are bound to be big, fat laughs.


Some lace gloves on the guest of honor.


Our group; :)


Little Theodore even made a guest appearance. With a Davy Crockett-like hat.

Beautiful inspiration room!

You've GOT to see this dining room .... it's utterly fabulous. CLICK HERE to see how to decorate with pictures ... of all shapes and sizes.

One thing I often say to people is UES BIGGER PICTURES!!!! Well, if you have a mix of sizes of images near and dear to your heart, this is a great way to really rock them out! :)