It's Thursday?

Man... time is flying by so fast lately!

It's really windy and chilly here today, and my first thoughts were, "Wow. It's really getting cold already!" But then I realized that it is October 23rd. November is almost here, and it kind of shocked me! I mean 2008 will be over before we know it. I guess that's what happens as you get older.

Things are continuing to go well here on the homefront!

We had a lot of fun at Cooper's field trip. All of the kids in his class were so cute and having such a great time. I had all the little girls wanting to sit next to me on the bus! :) Adam said it was because they thought I was the cool 2nd grader. Thanks Adam! :)

One of the best things happened this week as well.... my little man Cooper finally hit the baseball!! I swear, even as I wrote that, it continues to feel like relief. :) This is his second season. He played T-ball in the Spring as a 5 year old. Then he was moved up to regular baseball this fall for 5-6 year olds. But most of the kids he's playing with are actually in their 5th or 6th season because they started at early 4! He got to where he could hit off of the coach towards the end of last season and this season his first hit was Monday at practice. We've been at it now for almost 2 months with nothing but strike-outs and disappointment. I am not disappointed in Cooper, NO... It's been him disappointed in himself and the sport. And I have to tell you, as his mother it has been SOOOO hard.

It greatly saddens me how competitive sports are for our little people these days. He's 5 and has to play baseball with the same rules as the Big Leaguers. He even had a game a few weeks ago that ended up being called because of the mercy rule. That meant he only had one chance to bat the entire game. WHAT?? Who cares? I mean, they don't care if it's 100-0. They just want to play and have fun! But no... there's the play-offs that we must get ready for after the regular season. I'm sorry... but in my opinion, it's absolutely ridiculous!

I admit that for most of this season, I thought oh... it's our league, our team, the sport of baseball. And then as I spoke with the other mothers on the team last night at practice and realized there was another 5-6yr old team in our league that practiced 4-5 days/week, and their sons that played football at the age of 7 and 8 practiced 3 nights a week for 2 hours a night, and listened to this one mother scramble to get her child registered on some USA Tennis registration... I was hit with a big reality. This is what it's come to I think for our kids. No matter what sport, what activity and apparently beginning at the age of pre-school, it's all about winning and being so much better than everyone else. And I'm just sad about it.

I mean the alternative is to not let them be involved at all. That's no good either. But what do you do when your 5 year old leaves his baseball game boo-hooing because in his words he is "such a loser." I have NEVER used that word in my household. The entire season we knew that Cooper was struggling and made it very clear that as long as he tried his hardest and had fun, THAT is what made him a winner! But they aren't stupid. They know who wins and who loses. Cooper was well aware that he was the only kid not to have hit the ball yet.

I love sports! Always have, and obviously have a competitive spirit myself as I love to compete. But when I look around to realize that our children are being put under severe pressure in kindergarten to win at the expense of their school work, and their self-esteem, I'm kind of at a loss.

I'm just glad for now that he has found some success with it. Something just sort of finally clicked. Since Monday, every time he heads up to bat, he's hit the ball, and he has a completely different outlook on baseball now. We have a game tonight and I so desperately just want to see him make it to first base. Because he so deserves it. And I don't ever want for him to think of himself as a "loser." It's one thing to lose. We all do quite a bit. It's another thing to be a LOSER. What a horrible thing.

So I kind of went off on a tangent here! But I'll put in an update as to how the game turns out. I don't care if we win or lose. I could care less about the playoffs, or our record. I just want my little slugger to get out there and have some fun! Wish us luck!

Field Trips, Fashion, Food, and Fall!

That's been the just of it lately!

Gracie had a field trip last week. We went back to the same place that I had been with Cooper a year ago. I guess that is a plus to having back to back kids. Getting to know I get two years of the same! Well.... I guess if it's stuff I want to repeat! :)

So we went to the farm, or parm as Gracie calls it! A little pumpkin patch place about 30 min north of where we live. We got to look at pumpkins, chickens, goats, a little hay maize, a hay ride, and of course a bounce house. No children's place is complete without it! It really is a cute little place!

This is Gracie as a flower! We also had to take pictures of her as a horse, pig, sheep, turkey, chicken, goat, donkey, etc... I'm just going to stick with the flower for this post!

She got all excited about the project we were going to do because I told her we were going to make a doll! That is what we did last year at least. As you can see, we did NOT make a doll. Instead, it was a bird feeder. You can see.... it's just not near as much fun as a doll! :)

This is one of my new favorite pictures of her! What makes it even better than the fact that I think it's beautiful of course, is that she is holding a pumpkin that I had to buy for her. The "free" ones weren't good enough! It needed to be a little bigger and we compromised on this one for $1.50. We'll buy our big pumpkins from the grocery store for $5, rather than paying $5/lb!

Cooper has a field trip tomorrow. Same sort of place except with a colonial spin on it I think, and I actually get to ride the bus this time! Haven't done that in awhile! I'll post pictures of those soon!

As far as fashion goes... I'm referring to my daughter! Look at this picture...

Notice anything? She's a giant compared to the other kids in her class! And no... she isn't the oldest. She has a March birthday, and the child is almost as tall as Cooper. I guess it's a good thing she is so into her fashion these days. Because if she keeps this up! She'll be a supermodel one day!

This picture is from the other day when she came into my room with the camera and suggested I take her picture because she "looked so pretty!"

This is what she actually wore to school today! Blue dress with purple hearts, purple, pink and white sparkly tights, and yellow jelly sandals. I didn't put up too much of a fight! She's 4 and can get away with it! Besides, SHE thought she looked sensational, and I thought she should be able to enjoy that!

FOOD... is going pretty well. I think I'm down a total of 4lbs, despite my few chocolate binge fests! :) I'm hopefully one pound away from where I was hoping to be for Clearwater with just a little less than 3 weeks to get it done. I say "hopefully" because you know how it is. One day the scale reads X, the next Y. You never know... you just have to go off of the consistency of it! That's what we must tell ourselves at least! :) Other than the high school fad diet attempts, this is the 3rd time I've made a specific effort to lose weight. The first was in college when I dropped all of my weight initially and the second was after having Gracie. There was no time to lose weight after Cooper! :) And I must say... it seems harder now! Not physically I don't think, but mentally. Ahhh, habits stick REALLY hard, especially as you get older! :)

Ah... and FALL! As much as I'm loving the cooler temperatures and not breaking a sweat walking to the bus stop everyday to get Cooper, I was not quite prepared for my Saturday early morning temperatures of hopping on the bike and it being somewhere in the 40's! OUCH!! And I'm a wuss when it comes to the colder temperatures. I was all decked out in my long-sleeves, gloves, tights, and socks and my toes were STILL completely numb the entire ride. It took about 10 min into my run before they no longer felt like bricks!

Well... that's about it for now! I'm so excited for Ironman Florida coming up, Clearwater, and I'm already planning out next year! I've signed on to head to Tuscon with my awesome Coach Jen in March! I'm already thinking, Crap... I've got to "train" for training camp so I don't get left behind! :)

Until later...K :)

Taking Inventory!

What does a girl do when she is having a "feeling sorry for herself" phase?

Take stock in her life! Or at least I do. :)

I have several reasons for feeling like I did at the beginning of the week. It's October. November makes for a late season. I just came off of a Half Ironman.... Yadda, yadda, yadda. All valid I believe. I'm not discounting my feelings, and I know a lot of others are struggling, or have struggled with this in the past. And believe me when I say, the comments that you guys left me and the emails/phone calls... were all so amazing. Thank you so much for all of your support! Now and all year!

Last year I had similar feelings. But I had my very first Ironman coming up. That was something I was in no way going to let slip away from me! So I toughed it out through those last 6 hour rides (by myself nonetheless!) and swam, biked, and ran myself to my equivalent of success for the year!

I have a couple of theories on some of my emotions leading into my Hawaii 70.3 race this year and now Clearwater. Fortunately for you... I won't bore you with all of my psycho-babble bs! :) But let's just say, my id, ego, self-conscious, me, myself, and I had a long chat with ourselves and pulled it together! The encouragement from my tri-blogger friends absolutely came into play, and my biggest thank you goes out to Coach Jen, who handled me exactly the way I needed. She and I click. At least from my perspective! :) I'm sure I'm her big nut case, but I absolutely LOVE her and am so blessed for the amazing year she has provided me with!

So long story short... I'm feeling back to my old self again! The swim workout I missed this Monday will be made up tomorrow, and I am back on the nutrition band wagon!

After taking some inner inventory, and some time to appreciate all of the wonderful and amazing people in my life... I decided to work on some physical inventory by literally cleaning out my closet!

*What a Mess! :) *Yeah, never did get around to this pile of magazines hidden underneath my skirts! Most are from 2006! Yikes!! I just tossed them all. :)

It's been on my to-do-list forever. When it comes to clothes, shoes, handbags, etc. I'm a bit of a pack-rat! I still own items that date back as early as middle school I think! I have certain items that I really like or keep for sentimental purposes! But A LOT of the rest needed to go! :)

*Why yes those are roller skates! These were in the "KEEP" pile! :)

*The initial progress! A bag full of shoes and 4 piles of clothes to donate. Not bad for just the closet. Next up... my chest of drawers!

And the other BIG news in the Mills' household... Santa came a little early to bring us a Wii! It was on the Christmas list, but we were told to get it now if we wanted Santa to bring it, so we figured it could come just a little early.

*Cooper getting his bowl on!

Needless to say... it's been a BIG hit! It comes with several sports games like Tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing. We bought the Mario Kart to go with it because that is what Cooper actually wanted from the system. And it has already been so much fun!

*Why is at least one of my children always missing clothes? At least she had on her underwear! :)

We've all been playing together with our little Mii people! It's been so much great family stuff!

And then it got even better last night!! Adam connected it to the internet!! I had no idea it even did that. And when he first told me, I thought it was just for gaming purposes, but NO... I am sitting here and keeping up with the Ironman updates on my living room t.v.! How cool is that. No computer, keyboard, or anything required. Just my Wii remote and t.v.! It is one heck of a machine.

So 4 weeks to go and I'm fired up!! We all have our moments. I had mine, and then I put my big-girl pants on and realized how absolutely privileged I am to have the opportunity to be racing 4 weeks from now. So thanks again everyone! Hang in there all you Clearwater and Ironman Florida, and Ironman Arizona people! Our moments are coming! :)

Soul Searching

In many ways I feel that I've hit a bump in the road... or bumps... or to some degree... I'm unravelling.

Bottom line. I'm tired. I began my triathlon journey just over 2 years ago and feel like I've been at it 100% ever since. Yeah, there were "off seasons", but I spent the off season of 2006 trying to train for the January Disney marathon that never would be because of a foot injury and then went right into Ironman training in January of 2007.

After Ironman Florida in November of last year, I had a lot of different emotions. Yes, I was glad to be done. But I'm the type of person that once goal A. is accomplished, I immediately start thinking about what's next. Plus, having broken my foot during the Ironman, I was out of running completely for 2 weeks. Great rest time, right? Well... I think I took off close to a full week before getting a little too into my biking for fear I wasn't running. :)

2008 has been an incredible season for me and for some reason my mind or body or both are ready to call it a year. BUT... as Coach Jen put it, I have the "biggest race of my triathlon career" approaching in less than 5 weeks, and I'm struggling to pull it together.

I've rearranged my schedule several times because I haven't made it to a swim on Mondays. And I usually HATE to mess with my schedule. Even Adam asked me what was up because I didn't swim this Monday! :) And normally he is the one asking me, "Do you really have to go?" ha ha! I vowed to lose 5lbs over the next several weeks. I lost 3 and ever since have been eating like a maniac! I'm tired, grumpy, snappy, and generally pissed at the world A LOT lately! :)

I need something to snap me out of it and get me back in the game!

I know it's just a phase. Next post will probably be me all fired up again. I guess feeling like this just bothers me because this is the polar opposite of how I normally am. I generally have infinite energy, and I can't stand feeling run down! :)

Anyone want to volunteer to come over and B#$%^ slap me???! :)

Ok... off to figure out why my husband is still at work and isn't almost home yet so that I can squeeze in my important run tonight. Life would be better with a treadmill! :)

My Name is Kellye Mills... and I have a Problem...

One Word...

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