Restoring Order

Man! Things have just gotten out of hand over here. I have been going 100 miles an hour for a few weeks now but simply running in circles. I am feeling very overwhelmed with the pace of things, but can't seem to find the pause button, or even a button that makes us move a little slower. Fortunately my plans for the day got canceled, so I am having a dedicated "find the floor" day. I am planning on filling my van with items to donate and making a delivery later today. I know, I know, we could sell the stuff and make a few dollars. I just don't have the time or energy to invest in that endeavor. But I desperately need to have less stuff, less clutter, less mess. So that's my goal for the girls nap. I will probably change out of my pj's and put on some "work out clothes" so the neighbors don't think I am a total mess.

house guest

We have a house guest for the next few weeks. Her name is Gucci.

The only thing she likes more than Aubrey is hiding behind our dryer. I wonder how she will react when I am doing laundry non-stop tomorrow?

2nd Annual ALHS Girl's Weekend

Last year we spent a wonderful relaxing weekend wine tasting north of San Francisco in the Sonoma/Napa Valley's. This year I wanted to show case my beautiful state so the girl's headed East for Big Sky Country. Here's Katie at Garden of the God's located in the Spring's.
We also visited Cave of the Winds and took the Discovery Cave tour. Michelle climbed back in to a narrow crevice to get a little more personal with the cave. The highlight was when our guide demonstrated cave darkness and someone latched onto my arm very tightly. It was a different kind of dark to say the least.
After spending another day in my town we headed to Roxborough State Park for a nature hike. We saw elk and deer and heard rumors of a rattle snack on the trail we were on. Thankfully we did not encounter any bears or mountain lions though.
Later that day we headed Downtown for a little shopping, dinner, and a comedy show. Then all too soon it was back to the airport and they were gone. The good news is that we barely scratched the surface of what Colorado has to offer so there will be more adventures next time our weekend takes us to the Old West.

Already???

Aubrey started pre-school last week and she loves it. She hasn't cried once and has asked me on numerous occasions to leave and go home and cry for her. Yes, she thinks Ainsley and I just go home and cry until it is time to pick her up. Too cute! I asked her all kinds of questions today about what she was learning, her response "I don't know." So I asked her what she did know, and she gave me a list of social things about her day. Who had a Birthday, who got hurt at recess, the pretty dresses the other girls had on, what the kids with allergies had to eat instead of the cupcakes...

I had a fast forward to high school moment. I can already hear the conversation. I'll ask her about school wanting to have a conversation about The Grapes of Wrath Geometry proofs and she'll give me the low down on who is dating who, who she thinks has an eating disorder, which teacher seems to be too friendly with his students, all the while omitting all relevant information about her personal drama. And you know what, I can't wait!

Impressive Jumps

Our kids like to take standing jumps off of, well anything really, but especially off of my Firm workout stools. Here's Ainsley's "hurdle" form.
Aubrey's high jump... or possibly long jump.
Look how high she is??? She's two. TWO!
I wonder who will break their ankle first...
Wow, that is a lot of air. I wonder if she will be able to dunk?

Day 6

She's trained! She did fabulous today. 11 successes, no accidents, and she even went number 2! And the best part, she initiated all of it! Hopefully she will still be trained tomorrow :)

Potty Training Recap

my attempt to cope with urine

So this week I decided to embrace the art of potty training for my second time. It is literally the first week that I could be home for sequential days in months, so I decided to go for it. I hate potty training, I really really do. It isn't going badly, I just don't do well in a world that is not in my control, hence my issue with toddlers in general.

Day 1- 4 accidents, 1 success. This girl can hold it for hours!

Day 2- Woke up dry, peed in the potty right away, held it until 11:00am, engaged Mommy in a power struggle, peed on floor of bathroom, woke up dry after nap, refused to sit on potty, another power struggle at 5pm resulting in success (if you can call it that), one more accident before bed.

Day 3- Power struggle continues, I try to act like I don't care. I insist that she sit, not that she pee, start having her wear vinyl covers over her undies, she has two accidents outside and one while eating lunch. I am beat up by nap time and want to crawl into a deep hole and hide. She gets up from her nap, we make a chart together with four boxes, discuss that she gets to take a family trip to the pool when she is successful 4 times. 2 successes by bedtime.

Day 4- She is still thrilled by the chart, pees in the potty twice by 8:30am, super excited about the pool trip this afternoon. We make a new chart with an incentive of picking a new toy from the treasure chest. Wets at 9:30am because AJ has locked the bathroom door. I was not happy with my first born. Ainsley enters another resistant stage. She drips a tiny bit in her undies twice, but does not pee while sitting on the potty. She hangs from the doorknob screaming her head off when I ask her to try. She wets a few minutes after leaving the bathroom. I try to talk to her about this while I am getting her ready for her nap. She keeps squeezing my eye lids and giggling.

Man, this is such a journey! I'm glad we are going to the pool this afternoon. It will give us some time to have fun and not be "on" for a bit. Hopefully she will continue to make strides towards daytime dryness, but until then the vinyl stays on.

Ainsley's Artwork

She described this to me and showed me the eyes, nose, mouth, brows, and hair. She really is amazing! And to think I was simply excited to see her make a closed shape!

I "Tri"ed!

Today was the day! And even though my legs are so achy I can barely walk, I feel GREAT! First off, I slept horribly last night. I woke up after a few hours of sleep and was up for 2.5 hours thinking about what I needed to do when I woke up, assuming I went to sleep that is... I finally fell back to sleep around 3:30 and had a really crazy dream about the event location being changed to Mexico City and my bike getting stolen. This made me furious, because my bike is a cheap piece and I couldn't believe someone would take it! Then out of nowhere my alarm went off, it was 4:45 and time to start my day.

I choked down a piece of bread with peanut butter on it (should have toasted it) and headed out the door. I arrived at the race location around 5:45 and followed the crowd. I easily found my transition area, got my body markings, used the bathroom, and waited. I caught up with Mike's cousin, Tanya (and friends) about 10 minutes before the race began and got to see the elite participants and cancer survivors take off. And then before I knew it, it was time to get in line. AHHH!

Somehow, I ended up in the front when the swim started, which was kinda cool, no one swimming over me or kicking me in the face. The first third of the swim was pretty easy, but the second third was more difficult because we began to catch up with the stragglers from the previous two heats. It created somewhat of an obstacle course and there was some of that swimming over stuff going on that I feared at the beginning. The last third was definitely the best. The swimmers had spread out and I knew exactly where I was going and how far I still had to go. Before I knew it, I had a half mile done and was running barefoot back to my bike, in a land far far away.

The bike was very frustrating for me. I was riding a mountain bike, and it was NOT a good choice. Women were zooming past me on their road bikes and our legs were going at the same pace! I must have heard "on your left" over 100 times, and I never said it. I am definitely investing in a tri bike in the next few weeks. I hated that I was working just as hard as everyone else, but with worse results. I am still a little gun shy with shifting gears too. I was so afraid that my chain might jam or snap that I took a few hills at a much harder gear than I should have. But I got through it and moved on to the run.

But, I couldn't find the start line. I had seen it when I came in at 6am, but I hadn't located it from my bike location. Oops. So I lost a minute or two wandering around asking for directions. At this point of the race I felt sick. I wanted to throw up, my stomach was tight, and I still had 3 miles to "run." I slowed to a walk to get my ipod going and am so glad I did. Mike had rearranged the songs for me last night and had put 4 or 5 hard hitting songs right in a row. It gave me the push I needed to actually run. I managed to run the first mile and the last half mile. The mile and a half in the middle were more muddled for me. I definitely ran more than I walked, but I wish I could have ran even more. The finish line was a beautiful sight. I saw my family and made it through with a smile on my face.

Then I lost my family and didn't see them again for a very long time. Mike went over to the results table to wait for me, I had no idea there WAS a results table, so I went back to where I saw him. I managed to borrow a cell phone from a spectator, but Mike didn't answer since he didn't know the number! So I had to go all the way back to my bike to get my phone. Ugh. Next time we will discuss where we are meeting afterwards!

I learned a lot today, like to locate where each portion of the race begins. But more importantly, I learned that I can do anything I set out to do, and that's pretty cool. It was so encouraging to see women of all shapes, sizes, and ages competing today. Everyone was so nice and it felt good to be a part of such an amazing group of women! I am already looking forward to next year and hope to continue getting better in these three disciplines. Here was my race split times. I over shot the bike by 1:02:31 (I knew it would take an hour with my clunker). I also overshot my run pace by about 6 minutes. Those will be easy things to train for going forward.

Distance	Short
Clock Time	02:15:22
Overall Place	2411 / 2862
Division Place	334 / 364
Swim	00:19:40
Swimrank	998
Trans1	00:06:42
Bike	01:02:31
Bikerank	2783
Mph	10.9
Trans2	00:04:29
Runrank	2268
Run	00:41:59
Pace	00:13:32