Our Crazy Weekend

I have been training to do a triathlon for about two months. I had been vacillating on whether or not to actually do it. I didn't want to drive to CA by myself, so when my brother Chris offered to go with us, there was no turning back! We left early Friday morning and arrived in San Diego by noon. We stopped four times before Yuma, I seriously thought we would never get there. My kids kept needing to go potty and we didn't even have drinks in the car. My kids had a great time playing at the beach, in fact Emery came close to getting completely in.
We stayed with my r girl friends who were doing the triathlon with me. We were up and out of the house at 5am and headed to Fiesta Island in San Diego. I was quite nervous, but excited and when we arrived it was so fun to see how many people were there. It was dark when we arrived and setting up our transition area was a little tricky. It was cold and I put on my wet suit hoping to keep me warm. Here's the four of us trying to get acclimated to the water so we wouldn't hyperventilate once the race started. I was feeling pretty good at that point, butthe race started and I did hyperventilate anyway. I seriously was turning back to the shore to quit! Thankfully, my friend Heather and this random women gave me the best pep talk as we were side stroking in the water. I didn't turn back and I began swimming. My wet suit was choking me so I loosened it and did back stroke the entire way. It was 1/3 of a mile and I actually had a mean back stroke. Three of the four of us came out at the same time, we call Rachelle the shark. She's a great swimmer! Transitioning from swimming to biking was hard. My legs were shaking and getting the wetsuit off was tricky. It was nice to have friends right there for help! I loved biking. It's my favorite and I borrowed my brother's street bike and I finished a little ahead of my friends, but I knew they would pass me in the running. My goal was to not walk when I ran the three miles and I didn't. I think I could have pushed myself a little more, but I was just so happy knowing I was going to finish and not be last that I didn't feel the need to sprint at the end. I was ahead of my group for a bit and then I heard Rachelle and Heather singing behind me and knew they were coming. I think I finished about a minute behind my friends. I don't know my exact time, but I know I completed it under two hours!!
I loved having my kids there to cheer me on and I loved doing it with friends. I couldn't have done the race without them. Chris was a saint and was so great with my kids during the race. Now that I did it, I want to do another one. So, if anyone wants to join me let me know, the more the merrier. We had so much fun doing it in a group. It was so exhilarating to make a goal and then reach it. We cleaned up, took the kids to the beach and then we headed home. The rest of the group stayed, but I went to do the triathlon and was ready to get home. I'm tired, but so relieved I completed it and wasn't last!!

Happy 31st Birthday Sam

I think he will forever be 28 in my eyes!!

I Finally Did It!!

One of my new years resolution was to learn how to make home made wheat bread. My parents gave me an electric wheat grinder for Christmas and all of my mom's old cans of wheat. They date back as far as August 1988! After four tries my bread FINALLY turned out. I could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I talked to anyone and everyone who had ever made bread. Then today I happened to glance at the expiration date on my oil. Yeah, it had expired a year ago! Obviously I don't do a lot of cooking. Using fresh oil made all the difference and my bread tasted so yummy, I was shocked!! One goal down one more to go. I am participating in a sprint triathlon February 21 in San Diego. My friends convinced me to train with them. I've been apprehensive to do it because of the swimming. I was not sure I could swim half a mile in the San Diego Bay, but I've been practicing and each time I get in the pool I'm a little better. My goal is to just cross the finish line. I've loved training up to this point. It's been so fun to have a goal to reach towards!!

Okay...So We're Finally Recovered

It's taken us awhile to recover from the holidays. If I could be tranquilized from about mid November to the second week in January I think my life would be less emotional. All joking aside, Christmas turned out to be great! Emmet's dreams came true, Santa gave him a box full of individually wrapped Bakugan! He has figured out that there is metal around the window frames in our home and that is where he keeps his "army" of Bakugan. (If you don't know they are magnetic balls that pop open into an action figure) Emery got her first bike and is a kamikazi on it! In fact, we have been out on bike rides almost daily since Christmas!This picture was taken Christmas morning. Emery has her own sense of style. She picked out her outfit!!

As for me thank goodness it's so sunny in AZ. I think a combination of the sunshine, happy children who are beginning to be a little more independent and I"m finally beginning to have the energy to make it as a single mom, this year will be a good one for us.

Merry Christmas

This was our last Christmas with "daddy"!

Top Ten Reasons Why I Love and Miss Sam!!

I can't believe another year has come and gone. I keep thinking Sam should be heading home, just finishing a two year Mormon mission! How exciting that would be. I am trying to make the two year mark more light hearted so here I go with my top ten list. It's really in no particular order.

1. Sam was a much better cleaner than I am. He always cleaned the bathrooms. I loved it! He also was such a huge help in the kitchen.

2. I loved that he was so much taller than me. He would give me picky back rides, carry me on his shoulders and gave the best hugs.

3. I absolutely loved watching him play with Emmet and Emery. He was always so inventive with them. One of the hardest things for me to cope with is the fact that Sam doesn't have the opportunity to play with his kids, because he loved it!

4. I love sitting in the passenger seat. Sounds silly, but I hate driving.

5. I miss playing tennis, soccer, and going on bike rides. I especially miss going on walks with him.

6. I miss our gospel discussions. We would talk for hours about religion. I have so many questions I still want to discuss with him!

7. I loved that he brought out the fun side in me and helped me not be such a stick in the mud. So many times I would complain about going to a shower or some church function. Sam would convince me to go telling me I would have fun. He was always right. I loved that he would wait up for me to hear all about it!

8. I miss our road trips. We had so much fun driving to California on a whim, relaxing in Mexico or exploring the East coast. He was the best travel companion. Some of our best conversations where during our road trips.

9. I miss his gorgeous blue eyes that always lit up when I walked into the room.

10. I miss and still love my best friend who always helped me be the best I could be and saw my potential. He would never let me criticize myself because he would tell me it hurt too much to hear someone talk so negatively about his favorite person!!

Tree Hunting

I was thinking of one of my favorite holiday memories with Sam . It was Emery's first Christmas and the day after Thanksgiving. Chance was visiting and the five of us headed north to cut down a fresh tree. This was a novelty for us because in AZ we use fake trees! It was a cold morning, but we had so much fun. It was actually quite hard to pick out the "perfect" tree. I remember Chance getting so irritated with us because we were taking such a long time to pick out a tree. What I laugh the most about is how we discarded the tree. Sam just chucked it off our apartment balcony.