Dolphins - Chicklets n Candy Canes - Snow

I stink at making football picks. Week after week I come in last. So, I recruited Grace to help me make my picks. Heck, we couldn't possibly do any worse than what I had been picking. Gracie is 4 so she picked all the animal teams except for the Raiders - her "dad's team". We picked the Dolphins, again, this week. And they won!!! I felt like I was watching the Super Bowl. Everytime a score would flash I would tell Scott, "we lost that game", I said this over and over until, the telecast of the overtime game with the Ravens and the Dolphins! Gracie and I were high fiving each other. YES! So far we have 6 right this week. :) All I can say is "GO BEARS". They play Monday night.

Ok, I know this stuff has nothing to do with training, running, swimming or biking but indirectly this kind of does. You see, I had my teeth worked on for several years after I flipped the handle bars on my bike. The first Christmas after the accident I had what is best described as chicklets for front teeth. I finally got my caps put on the following August, only to have shave off 2 pieces of them while eating spinich dip at a holiday party. It was back to the chicklet look for that Christmas too. The teeth held up for a good 10 years. Then the summer after the kids were born I was brushing my teeth before going to bed and I heard a crack. Well, I was brushing to hard I guess because I cracked the cap off. It was broken so bad that the little bit of tooth that the cap was attached to was even broken away. I had a choice of a denture plate (I'm not that old yet) or an implant. I picked the later. I had 3 teeth done. My front 2 and one in the back of my mouth that constantly gave me trouble. Fast forward to Friday, I'm eating a candy cane, biting pieces off, waiting, chewing and I realize that this piece is a little harder and crunchier than the others. You guessed it - I broke the back tooth in half. So instead of running Saturday morning I met with my dentist. Bright and earlier, trying to not lose my composure because I was told that dental implants last a "life time" and they aren't cheap. So now I wait, the tooth is being repaired. I was told "not to eat to much with the tooth missing back there". Which I guess is a good thing during the holiday season. :) At least it was the back tooth - so I don't have walk around with 2 pieces of gum for my front teeth.

Sunday woke up at 5:55 a.m. I could hear the wind hollowing. It was dark so I flipped the porch light and I could see the snow being blown around. Scott was downstairs already. He found a movie on TV. Grabbed my socks and hand warmers and went down to tell him I wasn't running this morning. I didn't hesitate with my descision. I was tired from all the holiday hoo hah and both kids have been fighting colds, so I've been up during the night giving them breathing treatments. As I curled up on the couch I put my hand warmers in my socks to keep my feet warm. I told Scott I would call Bubba at 6:30 and let him know I wasn't going. I knew he was probably the only one headed out there so he's the only one I would call. Started to watch the movie and the next thing I know my phone is ringing, it's 6:55, Bubba is calling me. I couldn't believe I got caught up in this really goofy movie. He wasn't going, then called back, he was going and so were 2 other trimates. Was asked if I was sure I didn't want to come. I just giggled and said, nope. Of course by 11 I was kicking myself for not getting out there. It was a beautiful morning. Got updates from the gang that it was a tough run but worth getting out there for. It was all fresh snow which meant they were clearing the path. Challenging. Next time.

Great Week-End

Saturday we met friends for a train ride with Santa. On the advice of the park district, who was hosting the event, we arrived by 8:15 a.m. It was cold! We were met by 4 young ladies bundled up in coats, scarfs and santa hats. We checked in and headed straight for the communter pavilion. I was surprised that there were already about 30 people waiting. Our friends arrived a little after 8:30.

We finally got on the train and found seats. Poor Debs lost all feeling in her legs because Zak had to sit on her lap. To be honest tho, I don't think she minded. :) Oh, her red nose is from the cold she's fighting. As soon as everyone was settled, one of the girls with a santa hat, that checked us in, read the Polar Express. Zak loves this book. He kept telling Debs that the boy gets a bell for Christmas. Once the book was finished we all started to sing. I know, it's kind of corny but hearing a bunch of children sing Christmas carols is enough to put even the Grinch in the holiday spirit. Gracie sure can carry a note. :) :) Cookies and milk were passed out. Then shortly after that Santa found his way to our car. Clapping, screaming, laughing and ho ho ho's were all you could hear. Heck, even I was excited. It was the quickest hour and a half I've ever spent. We were back at the train station by 10:30 filled with happy memories. Here's a pic of me and mom. I'm taking the pic, that why I look the way I do.

I met some tri buddies Sunday morning for a run at Swallow Cliff. Our usual parking area was locked so we parked at off the path at about the 4 mile mark. Thought Rick was coming out so I called him to tell him we were parked in a different spot. I think I woke him. Didn't sound like he was going to be joining us today. We kept a nice steady pace. Nothing fast. Snow covered everything. Thankfully it wasn't as icy as I thought it might be. Was glad I had the Yax Trax on. Noticed that a woman approaching us was a woman from spin class that I used to take. It was a nice surprise passing her, haven't seen her since last spring. Then saw a former tri club member, smiling, looking good off of his Florida Ironman finish. Chose to run thru one of the streams in stead of using one of the new bridges that has been put into place. It wasn't deep and figured it wouldn't hurt. If anything it would be a mind booster for later on when training starts to grind the mind. I enjoyed today. It was a little different from what we were used to. I got a couple of extra miles in after the group left and even climbed the stairs. May is fast approaching. 50 miles. Time to start looking at the training plan and putting things in place.

Jingle Bell Fun

Sunday was the Arthritis Foundation Jingle Bell 5k Run in Chicago. A group of trimates did it last year in the bitter, bitter cold. We had such a great time some of us decided to do it again.

Here we are at "LePeep" after the run. Nice shirts :)

Fortunately, this year the weather was ideal. 24 hours earlier we experienced a terrible ice storms and I don't think any of us would have guessed just how nice it was going to be for the start of the race. Cool and cloudy. I think it was just about 50 degrees with little wind. The worst part of the run was the puddles from the melted ice.

Scott I., Rick and I drove in together. Rick signed up early and had his packet picked up for him earlier in the week. All he needed was his chip. I signed up that morning which meant I didn't get a chip. Scott thought he signed up but when he went to pick up his packet, they didn't have him registered, so he signed up again. We met up with Laura and her hubby. Then found Doug and Sheila. We had checked our bags and still had a good 20 minutes so Scott and I did about a mile warm up. We talked about bikes, restaurants and how this was the race that made Scott famous. Last year he made the cover of Chicago Athlete magazine from doing this run. We joked about being prepared to smile in the spot that the photog took his picture last year. I took one of the kids santa hats to wear but couldn't keep it on my head. It kept slipping off or to the side. So I just held it while I ran. The warm up was over.

Found my way to the rest of my tri mates at the start line. It's funny the conversation that takes place. We all have the habit of looking down at our shoes. Doug was commenting on Rick's. I was noticing who had yanks and who still ties and who double ties like me. Then the gun sounded and we were off. Scott and I ran together. I was glad. I was still feeling like I was holding back after Grand Rapids. He kept me steady and paced me. Just before coming into the finish we slowed so I could put my Santa hat on for the photo op. We smiled again when we passed the news camera. Geeze, how corny. I don't think either one of us would be considered opportunists or publicity seekers but there we were saying "cheese". :) We stayed right around a 7:30 pace for the entire run. 23:26 and change was our final time.

While waiting to hear the results I was excited to see a woman I watched compete at the Florida Ironman. She did amazingly well. I wasn't sure if she knew me but I had to go and congratulate her. She was extremely humble describing her experience and it was great hearing her talk about it. She's headed to IM Canada next summer. I'm looking forward to following her journey.

The tri mates fared well. (We learned this morning that many of them had a podium finish!) We headed for brunch after the run. It was raining, so we did indeed dodge the weather demons this year. The conversation was as good as the food. I can't believe the year is coming to and end. It seems like we were just sitting in Wishbone laughing and talking about our plans for IMOO and the Chicago marathon and here we were talking about what a great time we had training and completing the races. And time moves on. :)

Pictures

We had lunch with Santa today. Went to download the pics and here are some shots that I didn't expect to find .....

Gracie taking a picture of Zak holding the class mascot.

Zak's self portrait.

Here's the one I took.

There's more that the kids took. Like 4 pics in a row of a whale on the kitchen floor or 3 pics of Gracies doodle bear sitting in the office chair. The things I don't see when I'm not looking. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

Our tri-club group at this years local Turkey Trot. It was ccccccooooollllllldddddd!

Ya gotta love the reflective piping, it really works :)

Zak and Grace had a school project. They needed to cut out pictures of the things they were thankful for and then paste them to paper. The teachers would laminate the paper so they would have placemats for the holiday. Here's what they said .....

Gracie -

Right out of the gate - I get the #1 spot - "You mom, I'm thankful for you"

Our house

Warmed up milk in the morning

Swimming

Dad

Zak

Apples

Oranges - "But Gracie we don't eat oranges." - "Oh yeah, ok, grapes."

Bananas

Carrots

Crayons

Zak -

My transformer

Warmed up milk

Carrots

Casey - his friend from school

Riley - Casey's sister

Swimming

Cousins Matt, Nick and Sammy

"Ok mom, that's all I can think of, can I go play now?"

Ben 10

The difference between girls and boys - Scott and I didn't even rank on Zak's list. Not even a thought. :)

I've given this thankful thing a lot of thought. I know the obvious, I'm thankful for my family, friends, my home and faith in God, my health. Do I dig deeper than the obvious? Well, here are 10 things that would be on my placemat this year .....

1. Finishing the Wisconsin Ironman safely and not feeling like I was going to die when Sammy joined me to cross the finish line.


2. Running the Ridge Run in May and feeling like I wanted to keep running.


3. Keri helping me after the Boston marathon


4. Running on the lake front with Bubba while it is storming and windy and then getting the water and swimming, finally in the big waves!


5. Watching my nephews Matt and Nick play football, side by side on the offensive line


6. Standing in church, exhausted by the kids behaving badly that day and Scott grabbing my hand, knowing that he didn't have to say a word to make me feel better, just grabbing my hand was enough.


7. Shopping in Jewel with Caroline. She was pushing Zak and he was grabbing the plastic produce bags and about to unroll them thru the fruits and vegi aisles. She laughed. Then told him no.


8. Having Rick to ride the Horribly Hilly Hundreds with.
   
9. Hearing my brother's voice on the phone, telling me he just won his golf tournament. We were both over come.


10. Finding Gracie at the waterpark. We were separated for just a couple of minutes but it felt like an eternity. When I finally saw her from a distance she looked so scared but she did exactly what I told her to do. I ran up to her and she held on to me tighter than I ever felt her hold on before.

There's more. These are the ones I can think of now. I am truly blessed.

Sunday to Sunday

What I saw and heard this week -

Sunday 11/11 a.m. - Was going to ride "Roll the Toll" but backed out because I was to chicken to bandit the ride. As usual I procrastinated to long and registration closed. So instead I ran with my tri buddies at one of my favorite places - Swallow Cliff. Was my first time running any decent distance since Grand Rapids. Perfect day. Cool - some sun. The scenery was amazing. The leaves were turning and still on the trees. Huge orange bouquets to run under. It was beautiful. Ken found some keys and about a 1/4 mile up the path we ran into the woman they belonged to. Ken got a hug from her and a huge thank you. Bubba and Tom couldn't let Ken be the only one receiving so they each got a hug - then they group hugged. Caroline and I couldn't stop laughing.

Monday 11/12 p.m. - The kids swam. Zak loves to look up and see me watching from the grand stand balcony. He always gives me a big thumbs up. Scott called to say he's not feeling well, he think he's got "it" - he's skipping the swimming and going to bed. Grace and Zak are the last out of the pool and the locker room. I make them dry their hair to avoid getting sick again. We "sneak" out the side door and all hold hands because we are now behind the school where it's dark. We sing on our way to the car.

Tuesday 11/13 afternoon - Finished folding the laundry and head to gram ma's. The kids play there while I attempt to start Christmas shopping. Scott Nextels me from work. "When is this weight going to be lifted off my chest?" he asks. "I'm going to the doc after work, don't call me, eat without me." Yup, he's got "it". Get a message on my answering machine from my friend in Minnesota - "Just read your blog, someone needs to yell at you for not going to the hospital in Grand Rapids. Hey, let's get together when we're in town for Thanksgiving! Call me!"

Wednesday 11/14 a.m. - Gracie doesn't want to walk to school. "It's to cold mom." Go to pick up the kids. Gracie's upset we aren't walking home. Go figure. We'll be sure to walk Friday. Realized I came in last again with my football picks. Ugh. My niece turned 20 today! 20! Time flies. Put up the Christmas tree. Am happy with my packing skills from last year. Nothing broke, everything comes right out of the boxes. Only have the lights working in the middle of the tree which is ok since that's the only part of the tree the kids put the ornaments on.

Thursday 11/15 afternoon - More Christmas shopping. Almost have the kids done. Review my lists. Remind myself that we don't want to make Christmas about "stuff" after seeing all the "Transformer action figures" that I think Zak would love. Scott's feeling better and wants meatloaf for dinner. Stop at Jewel, thank God I picked the hot dog piece that was stuck in my upper middle teeth cause I ran into my mom's girlfriend from high school. Later that night I try tracking down an old friend only to find out that she died of Lymphoma earlier this year. Cry while taking out the garbage later that night.

Friday 11/16 p.m. - My legs are burning. Screaming. Realize I haven't done any exercise since Monday morning when I did a half hour of yoga. Curse my time management skills. Set the alarm for Saturday 6:00 a.m.

Saturday 11/17 a.m. & p.m. - 6:15 a.m. - Crawl out of bed, get 35 minutes of yoga in. Time well spent. Run only 3 miles. It's cold and quiet outside. The run feels good. 10 a.m. - Finally find the photogs house who is taking our family picture (Patty please don't tell mom). 10:30 a.m. - I'm told I'm smiling to much. I need to just smile and not show my teeth. Huh? Hope the pics turn out. Go to 5 o'clock mass. We are still dressed in red shirts and khaki pants from taking the pictures earlier in the day. Start thinking we look pretty corny. See uncle Jeff on our way to the bathroom. Kids run to uncle after mass, they get so excited when they see him.

Sunday 11/18 a.m. - Meet up with my tri buddies at Swallow Cliff again. We have a bigger group this week! Even some new faces. The leaves are still on the trees but are now brown. What a difference a week makes.

Life

I enjoyed following last week's Florida Ironman. I knew several people doing it and they rocked the course. Since then I've been haunted by a story that came about from the race last week. A woman drown. A wife, a mother of 3 children 13, 11 and I believe 8. She raised money training and participating in the IMFL for an organization that helps grieving families who have unexpectedly lost a parent or child. (http://www.johgriefsupport.org/founders.htm) God, now she is gone.

We all train so hard. We look forward to the day that we can challenge ourselves mentally and physically. And then the unexpected happens leaving all of us with the question - how could something like this happen?

I always try to make sense of something like this. I'm having trouble this time. I guess I'm thinking if I write it down and put it out there I will find some comfort. The man who was updating this woman's condition on a slowtwitch.com forum wrote the following - We honor best not with flowers and cards and well-used expressions of sympathy but by imitating and emulating the worthy life of another. You could do far worse than to follow the admonishment to go and try to be like Dorothy. Be "Dorothy-Strong!"

Live life to it's fullest. Respect and love one another. There is no guarantee that tomorrow will come so live with no regrets. I've been hugging and kissing my children and Scott a little tighter lately.