The men who saved me from myself

This is Greg.

This is Greg teaching Mary how to change a bike tire.  HER own bike tire.

Mary has ridden her tri bike for 4 years.  Mary has never gotten a flat.  Mary has never gotten new tires.  Mary has never changed a bike tire.  Mary has never learned to change a bike tire UNTIL NOW!

Do you realize how ridiculous that is?  I race and race and race and then train a little more for the next race, but have no idea how to change a tire if it goes flat.

That’s just stupid, really stupid.

I have even carried instructions for how to change my bike tire under my saddle for four years…just in case. But now I know.  It still won’t be pretty if I flat, but at least I will be able to change it.

So, thanks Greg!

And, thanks to Nathan.  Nathan came with me to buy new tires. I was just going to have the bike guys put them on for me.  He suggested I take them home and learn how myself.

So I did.

And let me tell you how good it feels to know I can change a flat.

AND, if I get a flat on Sunday’s race, I will blame both of you.  Because I never had any trouble with those tires before I started fiddling with them.

Quiet Dawn

This morning around 7:00, the house was very still, everyone asleep but me. Then KP came walking down the steps, still stretching the sleep out of his body.

As the sunlight from the bathroom lit up half his little body I looked at him in his quiet state, in the quiet of the morning and a flood of emotion washed over me.  How big his little body had gotten, how cute he was, how funny was his hair splayed in all directions, and than that crooked smile that turned into a shy “oh no you’re looking at me” look.

At that moment I fell in love with him all over again.

Just another three days at the Cancer Center

Even though my dad is on a Chemo holiday until September, this week has not been much of a vacation. In fact, I’ve come to realize, fighting cancer is an honest to goodness full time job.

Monday:  Since my dad is part of a study he still needs to go in every three weeks and get his blood drawn just to make sure all the numbers are good.

Tuesday:  Found out his hemoglobin was REALLY low, so he got to experience his first blood transfusion.  That takes around 6 hours if you are wondering.

Wednesday:  Off to consult with the Radiologist about nagging hip pain.  Check out the socks.

Never a dull moment with Cancer!

The vampires and the bees

I have not been the only one in the house sucked in by the Twilight series.  Since I started reading them, CT has been asking me about the cover art, story lines and characters.  Needless to say, there has been a lot of talk in the house about vampires, sucking blood and werewolves.

Of course, all the while I am making sure my young brood understands that this is just a story and these things really don’t happen, nor do they exist.

This past weekend, while we were at the beach, I was reading the fourth book, Breaking Dawn.  CT asked me to give him and update on what was going on (if you plan on reading this book and don’t want me to spoil it for you STOP READING NOW!)

CT:  Mom, what’s going on in Breaking Dawn.

Me:  Bella and Edward got married and now she’s pregnant with some sort of vampire creature.

CT:  Or a werewolf?

Me:  No it couldn’t be a werewolf.

CT:  It could be a werewolf!  Couldn’t it?

Me:  No, she married the vampire.  Do you remember that book we read about sperm and eggs and where they come from?

CT:  Yeah.

Me:  Ok…well, we have a vampire sperm and a human egg.  There’s no werewolf involved here.

CT:  Ohhhhhhhhh!

Down the hill

I’m staring down at my training calendar and guess what…it is the last week of training.  Where has the time gone?  Did I really do all that was written down on that thing?

The beauty of the last week of training is it’s such a little amount of work, that it’s almost like cheating or it’s like you’ve been given a gift for working so hard or it’s just the mind fuck you get after so many hours on your bike, in the water and in your running shoes.

Here is what my last week of triathlon training looks like.

Monday:  swim-2×400 yard sprints with 45 seconds rest in between.

Tuesday:  run-just run

Wednesday:  bike-15 minutes at 40 km speed

Thursday:  run-10 minute run at 10 k speed, swim-just swim

Friday:  NOTHING

Saturday: NOTHING

Sunday:  Race Day and we will see how well this training plan worked this year.

Monday:  BonBons and spaop operas

What to do…

On the Friday before your kids come home from camp?

You go see a matinee with your sweetheart.

The 1:00 pm showing of Harry Potter – The Half Blood Prince.  If you are a Potter fan you will love it.

I loved it or maybe it was snuggling up and totally mashing with my husband in the back of the theater.

Ok, we didn’t really do that…but we could have.

No…I am not dead

I’m just kid free for one solid week due to them ALL being at camp.  A sweet glimpse into my future this fall.

Whenever I skip blogging for large chunks of time I feel like we need to sit down, have a cup of coffee and catch-up.  That said, get your coffee…here’s what has been going on in my world.

Last Saturday was the Lifetime Triathlon.  I actually got my packet this year with virtually no problems, with the exception I could not find my ID, that would have been a problem had I not found it in the bank envelope at the bottom of my purse.

It was a GREAT day for a race.  All the planets came into alignment for me at just the right time and I ended up probably racing my best race to date.  I ended up 5th in my age group, 22nd out of all the woman with a time of 2:34:41, almost 5 minutes faster than two years ago.

Many of my Tri buddies where there and also knocked it out of the park! 

• Sleeper Cell Courtney took 7th in her age group.
• Nathan, did a great job considering her DIDN’T train.  The best part was when everyone was setting up their transition areas and Nathan is yelling, “I’M GONNA WIN THIS RACE!!!”
• Then there is Speedy Jon, he took first in his age group, son of a bitch cyclist turned triathlete, did I just say that out loud?  Great job!
• T-odd had a great race as well (read his account of the race here) but still had a hard time getting that racing top on.
• Then there is Fast Matt…he raced in the elite division this race just so he could be done early to cheer Nathan on.  Had he raced in his age group, he would have taken 1st by over 3 minutes.

I’m so lucky to have such great talented friends…nice work everyone!

Sunday was Adam’s 39th Birthday…Happy belated birthday love.

Then Monday rolled around…kids off to camp!  It is KP’s first time to camp so everyone was very excited.  As they were sitting at the breakfast table KP says, “Finally, a break from this house!”  I feel the same was little buddy.  Really, I do.

Phoebe had her last soccer game Monday night and Tuesday morning found Lou Lou dead.  I feel only slightly guilty that I wished it was dead while I was cleaning the tank the day before.  I didn’t really mean for it to die.

And today, I’m feeling a little anxiety only having two days left to get everything done that I wanted to do.  On the top of that list, shampooing the carpet.  Have you done that?  I just finished, and there is something REALLY satisfying about watching all that dirt, dust and sand come up out of the carpet.

Unless that is only how dirty MY carpet is.

That’s it…now you’re up to date.

Sneeking up

I love this photo of PJ.

It just makes me giggle.

By the light of the teenage moon

This past weekend our family traveled to Wisconsin to hang out with Adam’s dad’s side of the family.  We do this annually and it always proves to be a great time filled with family, golf, copious amounts of alcohol, usually some type of water entertainment for the kiddies and then anything else we can seem to drum up.   And this year was no different as we hung out by Lake Michigan for four days.

Before we left town my book club picked a new book, Twilight.  As we took off in the car last Thursday I found myself reading for almost 5 1/2 hours straight while the road went whizzing by my window.  Sucked straight into the world of vampires and teenage unrequited love.  I, a 39 year old woman with three kids who has been married for let’s call it many years, swallowed that shit hook, line and sinker.  I downed that book in three days and could not keep myself from wanting more.

There were several people at the reunion who had also read the book and then we were lucky enough to have Ryan (a non Sellke for those wondering) in the house to do a dramatic reading for us by the light of the moon, can’t you see the smoldering eyes?

The day we left I asked Adam to swing by Shopko before we hit the road to see if I could find the second book, New Moon.  Bingo, and there went 5 1/2 more hours with the vampires.

If you need a little candy this summer, pick it up.  I promise, you’ll like it, but please don’t expect great literature with this one, just a good time.

So, the 3rd place trophy

I recieved word today from the race director on why I got third place in my age group.

BUT, first of all, I just want to say that triathlon is one of those sports where woman can ROCK IT until almost what seems to be any age.  The woman who won the race is 50 years old and couldn’t even stay to get her awards.  She had to leave to train for the Ironman.  How crazy is that?

So no fear girls, if you haven’t given triathlon a shot at 40 and have always wanted to, it doesn’t matter.  You have plenty of time.  Just jump right in.

Anyway, here is what the race director said:

Two girls in your age group were in the top five places. They get removed from age group to over all. This moves you from 5th to 3rd. Great job.