ALOHA!!!

I'M HERE!! I'M HERE!!!

If you can't tell....my excitement, my nerves.... , me.... we've all arrived here in Kona!

It is so great to finally be here. Yes, the flight was long, and no unfortunately I could not sleep in that tight little space on the plane, but it went by fairly quickly, and now I'M HERE!!

It is so funny being here too because it's brought back so many memories. Adam and I came to Maui for our honeymoon almost 9 years ago!! I can't believe it has been that long.

And what's funny is this morning I was thinking about how this race seriously feels like all of my wedding drama!

Adam and I started dating in high school and got engaged after my first year of college. That meant I had a LONGGGG time to plan my wedding! 2 and 1/2 years of planning!

Believe it or not, it turned out to be an advantage from the planning department of Atlanta weddings. Those stinking wedding people book up years in advance, so that was good, but that is a super long time to stress, worry, and fret over something.

Of course I was young too. I was 19 when I got engaged and turned 21 less than one month before my wedding day. I stressed and worried ENTIRELY too much! :) I guess a lot of brides do no matter their age, but of course I can look back now on it and laugh at myself.

I was no bridezilla, but you get caught up in everything being PERFECT! And I truly did have an amazingly beautiful wedding. Something I'll always cherish of course.

But I was reminded of it this morning as I woke up to the sounds of waves and suddenly all of the stress and worries about my race just kind of washed right over me.

Just like building up to my wedding there were the moments of freak out that Katherine didn't have tights that matched, and did my Dad's tux fit properly, and so on and so forth. But then suddenly after all of that hard work when the Rehearsal dinner finally came..... none of it mattered anymore. I still wanted my wedding to be beautiful, and I still had those excited, nervous jittery-bugs, but I was no longer "sweating the small stuff." Because it had arrived. It was time to STOP planning and ENJOY every moment that I'd spent the past 2 and 1/2 years choreographing!

That is exactly how I felt today! I've been so worried about my swim, my splits, the wind, the heat, my bike getting here, getting the kids situated, traveling, etc... But this morning... all of that is done. I've worked so hard all year to get here, and I'M HERE!!

So it is time to ENJOY!! I mean this obviously doesn't mean that I can just kick my feet up and NOT do what I came here to do. I still proceeded with the ceremony and reception, and I still have a race to do! :) But the stress and worry is gone.

I'm so excited and having so much fun and so thankful to be Here! :)

Mahalo to you all!!

K :)

"You Make Me Vroom!"

Well it is as if my body decided to DEMAND recovery....

I kept saying I was going to, and saying it, and finally... Well my body decided to quit on me! :)

See... when you build up to your peak weak and your working out like crazy (or at least my kind of crazy :) , and then you move into your taper week where you're not dealing with the volume, but you're still cranking out the intensity, THEN your kids go 4-5 days of waking you up all throughout the night so you get VERY little sleep, and you spend your days running around like a mad woman... your body, or at least my body, decided to stop waiting on me to get around to recovering and take matters into it's own hands...

And so I got sick!

Yep... spent the weekend laid up in the bed. It hit me on Friday when I posted my last blog. I could feel it coming and KNEW I needed to start being proactive about it. So I called Jen, and of course I took the day off from workouts, but it was the last day of school and things were still pretty busy.

Saturday I felt better, so proceeded cautiously... I PROMISE... Did only a swim, even went and got a pedicure!! It's my ultimate in relaxation!! Adam and I had dinner reservations at this really nice Thai restaurant downtown. He works with a really nice lady, Ming, who gave us a gift certificate there because she works there on the weekends. It was SOOO nice! The food was excellent! And therefore I got my toes done beforehand to help me look all pretty! :)

Well if you read my coach's blog, Jen H., she recently wrote a blog about race rituals...She wrote some of hers and asked people to comment about theirs. Well one of mine is I always paint my toes a color corresponding to the race that I'm doing. Why??? Who knows!! hee hee!! I mean they have to be painted, so I might as well make it as difficult of a decision as possible, right? :)

Examples... Ironman Florida, my toes were Orange.

St. Anthony's.... pink... not really sure why... pink just seemed "beachy"

So when I was planning my Hawaii race, of course the color of my toes had to be thought out in great depth! My first thought of color when it comes to Hawaii is RED. I did second guess this thinking maybe a more tropical color is suiting, but when I was picking out my polish color at the nail salon I started to read the names of the colors for some reason. I was looking at reds and pinks and when I picked up a red color that's name was "You Make Me Vroom" I thought it was a sign!! I mean how perfect of a color is that!! I even bought an extra bottle to take with me for touch ups because I need as much of that Vroom in this paint color as possible!!

So after a so-so day on Saturday, I woke up on Sunday feeling like complete and total crap! I laid in bed all Sunday and all Monday except for a short little run on Monday because HELLO... I'm freaking out about the fact that I am racing in less than a week and I had been sick.

But... I have been a good girl... I've Rested, and Rested, and Rested!! Trying to take it as easy as possible and didn't even do my swim today because of all of the running around I had to do to get ready to leave town tomorrow.

So hopefully it will be a good thing. You know I'm one of those everything happens for a reason people, and maybe this was a good thing to literally knock me on my butt and keep me from being my usual crazy person this past week heading into Hawaii!

I DID squeeze in a trip to the nail salon today to let Gracie get her nails painted. Normally I do it myself, but the girl put little flowers and butterflies on her hands and feet, and my daughter thought that she was truly the most beautiful thing ever, which of course she was! :)

So now that the packing is done... the kids are situated... the chores are done... I think it just may start to sink in that I'm actually going tomorrow! I honestly don't think it's hit me quite just yet!

Thank you all for all of your well wishes and sweet thoughts!! I'll keep you posted when I'm in the middle of the pacific, and wish me, Bree, Brooke, and everyone else for great weather, fast legs, and a good spirit into the weekend!!

K :)

Repeat After Me: "Recover... Recover... Recover!"

That is my mantra for the next 7 days!!

As my last post described, I've been a little run-down lately. I mean we all know that that's kind of the goal with that final build up to race.

And though I've made some serious changes in my life to help take the edge off, it technically won't go into effect until this next Tuesday.

So I guess you could say that my life started catching up with me this week! :)

Jen and I had to switch my schedule around for the week a bit since my bike left me yesterday. So I ended up getting up early on Thursday and heading out for my "long" workout for the week. I mean it was only a little over 2 hours, but I generally do that stuff on the weekends. Then with this being the last week of school, we've had party, after party, after party. I've been trying to finish up things at the restaurant and as usual running around like crazy! :)

I decided to take the kids to the pool on Thursday afternoon. It opened this week for the season, and I've been promising to take them. We didn't have anything else going on... so off we went! This year is actually going to be not so bad as the kids are a lot more independent. But I still have to be right there and wasn't really sure how it would go, so I followed them around the entire time. And we have a really awesome neighborhood pool. It's got 2 of those big slides and it's something over 2 acres or something, so it's not as if I just parked myself on a lounge chair and chilled out the whole time! :)

Well the kids haven't been sleeping well this week. Which of course means that I haven't either. Up and Down all night long. Gracie needs more juice.... She wet the bed one night which of course required a full bed change and a change of clothes for her... Cooper and her climb in bed with me and then I can't sleep so I have to move them back. If you're a parent, you probably know EXACTLY what I mean or have some secret that the rest of us don't know about! :) So I think after several nights of not sleeping well it just finally caught up with me in the form of exhaustion. And when I get exhausted, I get nauseous. I know it's kind of weird, but it's just what happens.

So finally Thursday night after being up already 4 times before 2am, I got to feeling super nauseated and was up for the rest of the night wishing I would throw up again! Of course this meant yesterday I felt soooo super tired and kind of weak and UGH... So I had to call Jen and she told me to take the day off. I tried to get as much rest as possible but with it being the last day of school we had 1 party, and 2 separate graduation ceremonies to go to. Plus you know I won't skip my physical therapy anymore! But I did manage to get in a nap, and slept late this morning, so I'm feeling better.

So despite that this is Memorial Day weekend and we have 2 different parties to go to.... my house is seriously a disaster and needs to be cleaned.... I have no kidding like 10 loads of laundry to deal with and pack my stuff plus everything my kids need to go stay with Grandma Peggy for the week.... I have a birthday party today and a few workouts to take care of.... I MUST RELAX AND RECOVER!!

And in keeping with my total lack of mind theme from yesterday... I shipped my bike off yesterday without putting any sort of identification on it. Ha ha ha!! I had to email Bike Works yesterday and tell them that the unmarked box with the 48 cm cervelo in it is mine and please don't send it away or sell it!! :)

So if you're a neighbor of mine and don't know why I'm once again leaving the party early or you come to my house to discover that there are toys everywhere and dishes in the sink and dust bunnies on my floor.... I'm sorry... I MUST RECOVER!!

What's funny is I can probably guarantee you that in a month from now when I don't have any of this stuff going on, I'll be writing about how bored I am... :)

Let's hope not!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone! Be safe and travel well!!
K :)

An Unfortunate Consequence of When I'm Working Hard

So I may have mentioned this before, but I have this really bad habit of "turning my brain off" when I'm either focused or working really hard!

We first noticed it back in college. During really stressful times I couldn't do the most basic of tasks. Simple math, concentrating in conversations, you name it, I was just out of it!

It would happen right at the peak of these events and then heaven forbid when the break finally came.... I was just useless! My brain seriously went on vacation. It was pathetic!

Pregnancy... I could barely do carpool duty when I was teaching because somehow I decided that it made more sense to walk IN FRONT of the car where they could see me??? I'm surprised I'm still here!!

Well training has the SAME effect on me! It's usually at it's worse either during or immediately after workouts. My friends and I would laugh at me after those long 6 hour rides about how I would manage to even get home!

As you can imagine... I've been kind of focused lately. I mean if you think about it, it makes sense. It's my brain conserving it's energy on what MUST get done like triathlons, kids, etc and dismissing those non-important things like current location! :)

Well today I had one of those "moments." I got up early to go do a brick for several reasons. Number one... Carbon Electra leaves for her big trip tomorrow, so I had to get in ONE last ride before she heads out! Plus... Cooper had this other party thing today at school that I HAD to go to. I've been to seriously EVERYTHING BUT one thing. You'd think I missed all the parties this year! So I made sure that I got my brick in early enough to even shower before heading to the party so that I wouldn't be "that" mom! :)

I got my ride in and everything is going ok for the most part except that I'm unexpectedly freezing! I was not expecting it, so I didn't have any gloves, socks, or anything. But still... everything "functioning" on all cylinders from the brain perspective at this point!

Then I move onto the run. I always run with my handy-dandy Garmin. I've had it for oh over a year now, and apparently the lap memory is Full!! It's been warning me about this for God knows how long now. Well... it thinks it's Warning me when it's really be driving me freakin' batty!! So I thought if I just synced it with my computer that would solve things, but apparently not. I've continued to let it "warn" me for weeks now. Well today it finally reached that point of capacity! As soon as I started running it started beeping at me and wouldn't stop. I even stopped running and started pushing any and every button to make it stop but NOTHING. Finally I decided that I would just have to endure this through my run, which was only 25 min, so I let that darn thing beep away.

So I'm running along and after 10 min I'm supposed to do 10 min of 1 min HARD/1 min EASY. I go for my first HARD min and I'm pretty much sprinting. I look down at my watch thinking, holy crap when is this min ever going to end. I then glance at my pace to see how I'm chugging along and read 8:30. Immediately I'm like, "What the F$$$!" I mean 8:30 isn't a bad pace but I'm feeling like I'm going all out almost, so that can't be good! Ok... well the min ends, and I move onto my min. of recovery. 2nd try... 8:31/8:32 pace. Again... I start thinking... ok... I guess I'm a whole lot more tired than I realize.

Then I start rationalizing it... I'm running on the trails and I tend to be slower on the trails!

My Feet are still numb from that FREEZING ride!

Maybe it's too early in the morning!

I proceed with my 3rd... 4th... and by the time I finish my 4th and move onto my 5th I've decided that it MUST be my watch. It's broken that sorry piece of "crap!"

Finally I'm done with my short little intervals and start to cool down when I realize that this whole time I thought I was looking at my pace, I was reading the Time of Day!! :)

Oh... it was one of those moments where I felt so retarded I couldn't even feel better about my pace! :)

So as Honu get's closer and then even ultimately comes to an end... this blog may actually become incomprehensible! Bree, Brooke, and other's that meet me are going to wonder what the heck is wrong with me!

So bare with me please!! :)
K

The Winding Down!

That's what May is all about! Well for me it seems anyways!

Ballet is over... Baseball wrapped this weekend... I taught one of my last "official" spin classes for the summer this evening. (I'll head back after the summer as I'm sure I'll be missing it by then :).... This is our last week of school.... This is my last week at the restaurant.... AND I'm supposed to be tapering! Although I haven't really felt the taper benefits just yet!

Yesterday was a relatively lighter swim, but today was my usual spin class workout with instructions to "WORK HARD" followed by a 25 min T run on the treadmill. The first 5 min was run "HARD" and then 20 min at 10k pace. Well I feel like I had a little "rite of passage" moment tonight as I actually threw-up a little bit and swallowed it after that first 5 min on the treadmill! For you non-athlete people you're probably thinking, "Ew.. GROSS!!" But I've never done that before! I mean I've been nauseous, and I'm also one of those people that it takes A LOT for me to get to that throw-up point. I am that person that will feel so bad I WISH I could just throw-up, but it's a rare thing for me. Cooper on the other hand throws up at the drop of a hat. He got hot at his game this weekend, came home threw-up 3 times, and then was fine! So the fact that I actually kind of did tonight, meant a lot!!

But it's all good! Hard core speed stuff this week, less intensity this weekend, and then next week... I'M OFF!!

I can't wait for SUMMER!!

I've been reading, "Eat, Pray, Love" and it's so good! The best thing is that I'm actually reading again! I haven't read a book in a long time. I've been too tired and too short on time to devote myself to a whole book. I tend to just flip through magazines for the past, gosh... 2 years or so, and I LOVE to read. I've grown up as one of those people that tends to always be in the middle of a book. I just go from one to another. So, I'm determined to stick with it! I haven't even read the final Harry Potter Book!! That's kind of a big deal that I haven't read that book. I've started, but just can't get through the longer chapters before totally crashing at night, and my kids will NOT let me read when they're around. Mommy not paying attention to them... That will not do :) So don't tell me what happens, because that's next!!

My new favorite treat.... The original Bear Naked Granola mixed with Dark Chocolate M & M's and Cranraisins!! Ah... It is like the BEST!! It's good for you! It's very sweet, so you don't want/need a lot to get your "fix!" Deelicious!!

I think that's all my happenings for the past couple of days!
Thanks for reading!
K :)

Random Weekend Musings!!

1) The meaning of words!!
Friday night I was at the Physical Therapy office getting some PT. I'm not usually there on a Friday evening, but I've been sticking to my physical therapy plan!! Well apparently a lot of the young high schoolers are currently visiting the clinic on Friday evenings as well. The adults find it rather humorous as they go about their little stories of life's dramas! Well as I was getting ready to leave, Laura and I were discussing when I should come back. She suggested Monday, and I said I'd try to push it to Tuesday since the kids will be in school then. However, I had a SUPER huge weekend and said that I very well may need to come in on Monday because I'd probably be "TRASHED."

Well I didn't see the looks on the young girls' faces, but I did see it on Laura's face as she started laughing at the young high school girls. See apparently the word "Trashed" means something entirely different to a teenager than it does to us tri-geeks. The were under the impression that I meant that by Monday I'd be trashed from drinking so much!! Ha ha!! It's been a LONG time since that's happened! :)

2) When you're on a REALLY long ride... you have a lot of time to think!! After seeing dozens of election signs, I realized that one of the signs I've seen over and over was for the coroners position.... Ok... I'm not downplaying this role, but WHY is this an elected position??? I mean are there people lining up for this job?? Just curious!

3)Hills have NOT been my friend this weekend! :)

4) I leave for Hawaii in less than 2 weeks!!

5) Congratulations to all the racers this weekend!! All I have to say is WOW!!

6) We wrapped up baseball this weekend. It was kind of sad. Watching my Cooper get his MUCH earned and MUCH desired trophy today was the highlight of it all!!

My Daily Accomplishments!

Have you ever had one of those days where you just feel successful?

You know... it's a good day, but not necessarily because anything special or monumental happened. You just got a lot accomplished, and you had a few small little moments that made you appreciate your life and what you have!

That has been my day!

7:00 Get awakened with a "It's mourning time Mommy!" from Gracie!

7:30 Finally get my lazy self out of bed and spend the next hour picking up my house without too much effort, getting everyone dressed, lunches packed, the check for the teacher's gift in Gracie's bookbag finally and out the door!

8:40-9:00 Sing and Dance to "Yellow Submarine", Sing and Dance to "Help!", Repeat this pattern x 3! (Adam and I have been into a Beatles kick lately. We've both been listening to "One" in the car lately and Cooper's favorite song is "Help!". Gracie's... "Yellow Submarine" of course. You are REQUIRED to sing and dance along when you're in the car or else Gracie will NOT have it! :)

9:00 Drop off the kids and go through the McDonalds driveway for my usual morning Diet Coke only to be given a FREE chicken biscuit! I'm a southern girl... Chicken Biscuits are DEElicious!!

9:30 Come home and get myself physically and mentally ready for my Hill Repeats. 9 of them up a ferocious hill in my neighborhood. WHOA!!

10:30 Feel like I'm going to Puke/Die/Pass Out on side of the road when finishing my last set of hill repeats. An old Indian man stood out there on the side of the road and watched me for the final set. I couldn't decide if it was freaking me out, or inspiring me to look more like a bad ass in doing it! :) Good news I guess that my heart rate was so up there that I couldn't really think straight to care! :)

10:45 After a nice warm shower, I finally got to enjoy that DEElicious southern style FREE chicken buiscuit. And doesn't the fact that it's free make it that much more good!! :)

11:00-12:30 Finally sat down to do my work. Seriously got more accomplished in this hour and a half than I have in awhile!! All that little stuff that you brush off but builds up... RSVP's, balancing the checkbook, responding to lord knows how many emails where people probably thought I really HAD died, and restaurant stuff.

1:00 Pick up kids... Repeat 3 more times the "Help!"/ "Yellow Submarine" routine

1:30 Come Home and finish up a few things still left to do. I am such a wimp too!! I've spent the past 3 days backing down from 2 jobs! One would wonder why it would take this long, but it's because I don't do it abruptly. I twist it around to sound like I'm not really doing it because I'm such a WIMP!! I finally managed today though to confirm that I want to take the summer off from my Spin classes since I'm going to be travelling a lot this summer AND I stepped down from the restaurant after May. I find that stuff so hard. I don't want to put anyone out, hurt anyone's feelings, come across as the Big B word.... BUT... the good news is I did it so that hopefully life will be MUCH less complicated from this point forward! :) AND I have put together a proposal for the training job to jump start that part of my life with some tri- clinics and training classes and what not!

2:00 I actually remembered to put dinner in the crockpot... I can't believe it!

So even if the day ended here, I'd say it was a success. I'm pretty much done with all of my work stuff. I'm going to go veg out in front of the t.v. watching some "Sex and the City" reruns while folding clothes. Actually sounds nice!

Then I have a date with my trainer tonight for 1:30. Ohhh... And I'm looking forward to it as I've already prepped Adam for the fact that he will be on babysitter duty so that I can ride behind my bedroom door all by my lonesome!! Can't wait!

So I hope all of you are having a great day! I guess you could say this whole quitting thing is quite liberating!! Best to you all!
K :)

10 Feet Tall and Bullet Proof!

This is what Adam says I think of myself as. I'm 5' 2'', 120lb, but I don't see myself that way! :)

I guess that's what Rocky and I have in common. He wouldn't classify himself as a small dog. Oh.. No... He considers himself to fit right in with the big ones!

Not that I think I'm big and bad. :) I just always seem to overestimate my capabilities. Or at least aim for the higher stuff. That can be a good thing. But it does tend to catch up with me sometimes.

This is the usual progression....

I had Cooper... 11 months later had Gracie.... I always knew I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom, but being that I like to shop and participate in one of the most expensive hobbies out there, I also like to make extra money.

I've tried tutoring, working at a coffee shop. I teach my spin classes. Anything that I can squeeze in here and there not only for a little extra cash, but also because I think it's fun! I like a lot of different things. But I also like to go for things all out. So sometimes I lose track of the balancing part of things!

Well about a year and a half ago I started working at the restaurant as the Special Events Coordinator. After about 10 months of travelling an hour and a half each way back and forth from there a couple of times a week and cramming in a full-time job with trying to stay home and do everything I was doing, I knew it was too much. So fortunately last October, I cut back to more of a part-time basis.

However, I've been a stay-at-home mother, the primary caretaker of our household (although Adam really does help out A LOT around the house, so I will definitely give him props! :), working part-time for the restaurant, now working part-time for PT Solutions as a trainer, continuing to teach my spin classes, and then Team mom for the baseball team and ballet classes, mixed in with my training, my own personal physical therapy, etc., etc., etc....

I enjoy all of these things! And the problem is that looking at any of them singularly, I think, "Oh it's not that much." But in the adding it all together process, I've found myself completely overwhelmed and burnt-out!

I feel like one of those people trying to balance 100 plates in the air and that they're all about to come down and crash! :)

I also HATE being bad at stuff. I know that sounds retarded, but I hate knowing that I could be better at something if I were able to devote more time to it. So I'd honestly rather be really good at a few of these things than mediocre at all of them.

Honestly though Summer is here in less than 2 weeks!! We wrapped up ballet yesterday. Baseball wraps up this weekend, and May has been a super busy month at the restaurant. Friday night I actually even had to waitress! It was fun to a certain degree in the fact that it's something I've actually never done.

What stunk is after getting up at 4:45am on Friday morning to go to Masters, then onto a 3:30 somewhat intense ride, then hurry to pick up the kids to get home, change, and then head out. I sat in traffic for no lie... 3 HOURS!! to get from my house to the restaurant!! Some accident on 85 North left 3 lanes closed down and so I could have gotten there faster if I'd have walked I think! But after all of that, I worked for almost 4 hours waiting on a rehearsal dinner that we'd planned and I ended up having to help out because Bob and I had a miscommunication with the events, double-booked the room accidentally, and we were short on staff. So we had to do what we had to do. I left there close to 10pm having had no dinner. I was starving, tired, and had to drive 1:15 home to go to bed so that I could get up on Sat. run for almost 2 hours and go through the entire busy weekend that progressed.

I thought when the weekend finally came to an end that I was almost free and clear. I kept telling myself to just get through this next week and then I'd taper for Honu and ballet and baseball would be over and we'd be almost through this crazy month at the restaurant. But yesterday I was a HUGE B$$CH! I found myself snapping at the kids a lot. I was grumpy and tired, and when I get like this I eat like crap, which of course makes things worse.

All and all, I decided last night that I needed a break! I want this summer to be a true summer break. I am going to be travelling quite a bit, and therefore I'm going to have to trim some fat. So no extras for the entire month of June and July. And as much as I hate to do it, I am going to have to cut back on some of my part-time jobs. I don't want a full-time job, nor do I have the time for one, and if you have 3 or more part-time jobs, I think it's almost equivalent! :)

I'm anxious to focus on the personal training and start building that business. I want to be able to devote the time and energy needed in doing that especially as I prepare to get my USAT Coaching certification.

So, I'm starting today in readjusting my schedule to make life and me flow a little more easily!

I know that sometimes emails or blogs don't always convey the tone of the message appropriately and so I wanted to reiterate that this is a REALLY good thing for me! It takes a lot for me to back down some. Because as I'd stated earlier... I'm 10 feet tall and bullet proof and apparently thinK that I'm some sort of superwoman that can handle any and everything. As I know a lot of you people out there operate! So it's good for me to back down and take a breather. At least for now!

Hopefully some of these new decisions will help me go into Honu feeling less overloaded!

So thanks for reading. I hope everyone has a day in which they get to really enjoy the things they do!

K :)

Happy Mother's Day!!

After a really busy day yesterday, and a really busy week...I'm looking forward to relaxing some today!

So far I've been awoken with Gracie showing me "her" pretty new card. At least it was an actual Mother's Day card. The Valentine card she picked out for Adam was a Happy Birthday Princess card. :)

Cooper gave me a sweet little card where he signed it "Cooper Mills" so I'd know who it was from since he put his last name on it... They're funny!

The thing I'm looking forward most to today for myself is hopefully taking a nap. I haven't had a nap in awhile!! Ahhhh.... that sounds so nice!

And then of course I'm off to have Brunch with my parents and then Gracie's dance recital this evening. I can't WAIT for that! She's going to be so cute and sweet!! Which is a good thing considering she has NOT been very cute or sweet lately. She's been extra "special" as Adam and I describe it. To the point that we were planning on taking the kids to the Festival of Speed last night. It's a velodrome track cycling race they have 3 times a year in South Atlanta. It's soooo much fun and so cool to watch! But after a big birthday party and Cooper's baseball game, she just couldn't hang any longer. So Adam was sweet enough to take the kids home and let me go and meet some of my friends there.

So Happy Mother's Day to you all! And a Big Congratulations to all the Gulf Coast racers. Looks like a lot of people had a great day!!

K :)

Random Stuff!

Life has been really busy this week! So life has just been a conglomeration of the following!:

*I'M TIRED!! :) I came home from Disney needing a vacation! ha... ha! And then of course I had to get right back into the swing of daily life! After that 5 hour brick on Sunday, I've pretty much been moving non-stop between training, teaching, physical therapy (see... I told you I wouldn't skip it anymore no matter what :) ballet, baseball, house work, etc. I've barely been able to pack all my stuff at the end of the evening for the next day in time!! But I keep thinking about my Sunday schedule which says if I get all of my training done during the week, I can have Sunday off! Not that I wouldn't get my training done, but I've kind of applied that general rule to all of my daily "chores", so I'm just powering through it thinking... Mother's Day... Mother's Day... Mother's Day!!

*Mother's Day is going to be busy too, which maybe I can somehow squeeze in a do-nothing day sometime next week. BUT... it's going to be an awesome day! Brunch at my brother's restaurant with my parents and family and then my Gracie girl's ballet recital that night! I can't think of any other way I'd rather spend Mother's day than watching my sweet little baby girl in her ballet recital! :)

*I've been actually cooking dinner a lot this week! I know that sounds funny, but when things are normally this busy, it's sooo much easier to eat cereal or swing through Wendy's or a sandwich or something. But after eating out so much on vacation, ugh... I wanted REAL food!

It's been a little bit of a challenge willing myself into it some nights. I'm tired, and don't feel like it at first, but once I get going, I have really been enjoying it! Cooking for me can be soothing almost. If you're doing it without watching the clock or being in a hurry, you can just get into the moment and relax. Tonight I actually made homemade mashed potatoes! I haven't done that in a LONG time and ohhh they were yummy!! A special recipe maybe I'll share one day ;)

*My bike FINALLY has a name! So my problem was I was trying to force it. However, I've realized that WE do not chose our bikes names, it just comes about! When Marit was here, we were brainstorming, but I couldn't get anything to stick. It wasn't that I didn't like the ideas we all came up with, it just wasn't hitting me like AH-HA! Well when Adam and I were unloading my bike at St. Anthony's for me to do a quick ride on it before I turned it in, he started dying laughing and said he'd just named my bike! Of course I knew it had to be something ridiculous! :) Here's what he gives me.... CARBON ELECTRA!! I was like what??!! Well wouldn't you believe that while I was riding that bike during the St. Anthony's race, I thought of it and started laughing and it made me feel better. So there you have it! It's stuck! Carbon Electra!! I guess that means she's a HOTTIE!!

*Pugs NOT Drugs!!

*I've spent the afternoon freaking out about getting my bike to Kona. FYI to all of you Kona hopefuls in October... The airlines have changed their baggage policies. If I was going to fly with my bike out there... Delta would charge me $350, and from what we've been told... no more bike cases. It has to be packed in a bike box that is less than 80 inches total width, height, and length... Good luck with even accomplishing that. Well since Adam and I are flying Delta to San Francisco and then United from San Francisco to Kona, I'd have to pay extra fees to BOTH airlines. When it's all said and done, $720 to fly my bike to Hawaii and back! That's more than what I'm paying for ME to get out there! So look to shipping it... UPS 2nd day air... $320 each way!! That's a total of $640. The cheapest way is the Post Office for $150 each way, BUT you've got to allow 12 days NOT including Sunday. So in order to get my bike out there in time for the race, I have to ship it 2 weeks before my race!! AHH!! So, I'm going to have to figure out someway to get my bike out there where I can still actually train for the race and it NOT cost me a gazillion dollars!!

**My husband would give up a foot for $10 million!! Am I the only person that wouldn't voluntarily give up body parts for money?? :)

Ok... I guess THAT is what I've been up to... :) Good Luck this weekend all you Gulf Coasters!! Have fun and race Fast!!

K :)

Aunt x 9!

We got some really exciting news this weekend! After 4 + years of paperwork and waiting, and waiting, and waiting... My brother and his family FINALLY got their baby referral from China this weekend!!

They have 3 children already. Carli, Emily, and Tate. Amy, my sister-in-law, has just always had a desire to adopt one of these precious little babies that are abandoned so thoughtlessly and so over 4 years ago, they made the decision to go through the process.

Thinking at the time that it would take approximately 18 months, it's been a super LONG process.

But Lilly, my soon-to-be new niece has been assigned to the family and will hopefully be picked up and brought to her new home in June.

She was born on August 20, 2007. She's a very healthy and happy little baby girl! We're all really excited!

So Welcome Lilly to the family! She makes my ninth niece/nephew!

Home Sweet Home!!

Whew... well we had a ton of fun, but Disney is definitely a working vacation for the parents! :)

We drove from the St. Anthony's race over to Kissimee on Sunday evening. Adam's sister, Kellie Mills (the original :) flew in first thing Monday morning and we hit the Magic Kingdom with full force Monday morning!

A full day at Magic Kingdom on Monday....

Then onto Epcot on Tuesday. We did the Princess luncheon with Aeriel, Cinderella, Jasmine, Belle, and the favorite, Princess Beautiful! This was one of my favorite parts! To see Gracie so excited about seeing these girls who she truly thought were THE princesses, was so neat and exciting! Cooper was even excited when Sleeping Beauty gave him a kiss :)!!

By Tuesday afternoon however, I started to not feel well and I had reached my breaking point!! I was PMSing (sorry for all the info, but it seriously added to my bag of issues :), and Epcot is so stinking HUGE we walked so much that day! My mom and I had made dinner reservations at Le Bistro de Paris for that evening, and the way that we had purchased our tickets with only a few of them being park-hoppers, it was Tuesday night or nothing! I was SOOOO tired and grumpy at that point that I really didn't feel like going. Especially since we had to shower as soon as we got home and leave. NO REST!

(This is what happens when Gracie meets her breaking point!)

But how often do I get the opportunity to go out and have a nice dinner just me and my mom? So of course I sucked it up and went out and we had a really nice time! The food was good, but Dessert was OMG... AMAZING!! Chocolate lava cake with a side of a chocolate wafer and truly the most amazing white chocolate mousse I've ever tasted!! IT was worth it in and of itself, but seriously, I had a really nice time with my Mom!

Wednesday was one of Gracie's favorite day's at Animal Kingdom. She's our Animal Lover and LOVES to look at all the animals! Again, lots of fun, but very busy! And then after another full day at the park, Adam and I went out for a dinner by ourselves back to Epcot and the World Showcase and this time went with a little English Flavor to the Rose and Crown! I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I'm ALL about the British! I am in love with their accents and their style and everything! So that was all cool!

Thursday was back to the Magic Kingdom for most of the day with a short break in between and then BACK again to the Magic Kingdom for more rides and the super fireworks show in the evening! We also did another Character breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and Stitch! Sooo much fun! The kids were so cute, and got to do a dance with the characters! It was awesome!

At this point, I had done just about as much of Disney that one person can possibly do :) So I made Adam promise me that Friday would be LIGHT! It seriously amounted to almost 10 miles a day of walking! I feel like I'm ready for the Breast Cancer 3-day at this point! Seriously!

Tomorrow back to the training regime! I'm actually excited about it! I'm unpacked and ready to go!

Good luck to all you St. Croix people out there! Liz, Mel, Todd (Mel's husband), Bree! And anyone else I may have unfortunately forgot! I'll be psychologically racing with you tomorrow! Have fun!

K :)