Triathlon Rundown

Here's the rundown of the Root River Triathlon day-of-fun on Saturday:

I woke up at 4:40 before my 4:45 alarm. Steph, my friend/partner picked me up at 5:15 with 2 of her male co-workers. We drove an hour to the town we were racing in. We checked in, dropped off our bikes, dropped off our canoe, and waited and strategized until 8:10 when it was instructions time. Our canoe heat was #5 out of 16. We paddled away from the shore at 8:50. (We're the girls in blue below)

We canoed 6 miles and it took us about 1 hour and 14 minutes. We had a heavy aluminum canoe, and us 2 girls were racing against 2-man/mixed teams in Kevlar canoes. Not fair ;) We got out of our canoes and transitioned into biking.

We biked 8 miles--2 small hills and 1 humongous hill. I am so proud of myself for pedaling all the way up that monster. I learned a lesson about torque that night from Kevin. Apparently I wasn't using full advantage of my bike's gears. Good to know 12 hours too late. Biking took us 35 minutes. (We're both on the left)

Next up was a relatively short 3 mile run, at least compared to 6.5 and 8 miles. I ran my well with a time of 26:45 which means I ran 1 mile in 8:55.

Our total time was 2:29:57. We didn't know our transition times counted, or we would have been quicker about putting our shoes on and whatnot.

I finished 103rd for women and 33rd for my age group.

I'm so happy to have had an awesome partner and friend to do the triathlon with. There were a few times Steph had to wait for me (like on top of that monster hill), so I hope I didn't slow her down too much ;)

I was a little sore the rest of the day and on Sunday, but I'm doing fine now. I'm so happy that now I can be LAZY!!!!!!! And maybe run a little here and there when I want.

Would I do it again? Yes. But hopefully I'll be able to bike train a little more next time around. The weather was too cold/rainy this year to do that. And although Steph and I kept up with the other women/women canoe teams very well and we're proud of our accomplishment, the mixed teams sure were moving a lot faster on the river!

Le weekend

My weekend started off with the sad news that Stephie's (one of my BFFs) dad passed away of cancer. He had been battling it for quite awhile and is now at peace and pain-free. His memorial is tomorrow evening, and Brooke, Laura, Kristin, and I are going to go to Rochester after cutting out of work early to be with Stephie.

On Saturday, Kevin, Colin, and I met up with Tony, Leah, and Isaac at Lookout Ridge in Woodbury. It's an indoor playground. Leah summed it up pretty well in her blog post and included some great pictures of our adventure, so I'm going to let her take it from here. Read it. Please excuse Colin's pouty face (he really did have fun) and my husband's appearance. While we were in the car on our way, I noticed he had awful hat hair and he was wearing his work sweatshirt. I pointed it out to him and he all of a sudden he realized it too. He got all embarrassed and, I believe, was thisclose to turning around and changing.

On Sunday I met up with Brooke, Laura, Kristin and Stephie at IKEA for some lunch and shopping. Then we hopped over to the Mall of America. It was fun to hang out with more friends!

On Monday (which I realize isn't technically the weekend), I ran for the first time outside this season. I decided to make it easy and run to the grocery store and back. It's about 2 miles round trip. I walked the first .25 miles (5 minutes), and got back home in 19:09 minutes. I'm not sure how that calculates into min/mile, but it's around 9 or 9:30, which I'm happy with! It was so good to be outside running. No more excuses about not being able to go out. It can only get warmer from here!

This one is about food and friends, not poop

As much as I want it to be about poop, I will give you a one-post hiatus. Instead, I will talk about the adventure I had last night with co-workers.

I was invited to join my co-worker (Stacey), a former co-worker (Pam), and Steph, who is the art teacher at the middle school for a girls' weekend. Originally the plan was to eat dinner and drink margaritas in Minneapolis at a Mexican restaurant, Las Mujeres. We were going to spend the night in a hotel called Aloft. Then we were going to partake in early morning beautifying appointments at the Horst Salon and Aveda Esthetique (where Aveda stylists/aestheticians practice). Then we were going to have lunch and go home. Stacey found a great deal for the restaurant and hotel. The appointments wouldn't cost much since it's a beauty school (I was going to get highlights). I saved up some piano lesson money to use, which wasn't as much as I anticipated it being, so I was hoping I could get by without doing something. However, I didn't have to do that because it dwindled to substituting the Aveda Institute for Starbucks. Then it turned into no overnight; just dinner. All of this stemmed from Walker's Bill proposal. It was all fine by me because I had $42 in my pocket and dinner would be perfect for my budget. I'd even have some money left over.

On Friday, we met at Steph's house then made our way to Lake St. where Las Mujeres is. On my trusty place map, it looked like it was in/near Uptown. However, it was a mile from Uptown and in a sketchy neighborhood, so after convincing Stacey that her $3 coupon for $35 worth of food was NOT worth it, we went to Chino Latino instead.

If you've never been to Chino Latino, you should go. Expect to spend time there, and expect to share food. It's a family-style place. It was my second time there, the first time being Jess' bachelorette party.

We ordered drinks--margaritas for them, a delicious Honolulu Hummer ("banana-spiked rums blended with vanilla ice cream and served in a fresh young coconut") for me.

We ate fish tacos (I'm not a fish fan, but I hear they were good) and Belafonte's Banana Boat Chicken, which was "crunchy plantain-crusted chicken breast with a sweet-tart passionfruit sauce and sautéed peppers and onions." It was so good.

Then, of course, we also had dessert: a chocolate volcano cup ("molten dark chocolate cake erupting with kahlua whipped cream") and fried coconut ice cream.

Grand total: $137.00 for 4 people. YIKES. Yes--also expect to pay a lot. We decided that $42 was a perfect amount for each of us to pay. Perfect! :D

I was also able to come home and sleep in my bed with my cozy husband instead of a hotel bed with another woman whom I dare say would let me put my cold feet on her feet like Kevin does.

"I'm AJ. Nice to meet you. I'm 30."

^That's how I feel I need to introduce myself to people these days. Weird, right? And not that I actually have, but I feel like everyone's wondering, "Is she in her 20s or her 30s?" Eh, c'est la vie. We all turn 30 sometime.

We celebrated by going to Brady's Brewhouse. It's in town, but when you walk in, you feel like you're somewhere in the Twin Cities. The atmosphere is awesome. The food? Not so much. I ordered a cheeseburger stuffed with Ellsworth cheese curds, which I expected to be ooey gooey goodness. Instead, the bun was pretty crispy and the burger didn't have much taste. Kev had a hamburger with peanut butter inside it, and Colin noshed on some Goldfish-encrusted chicken fingers. I also had a glass of wine. Moscato d'Asti, of course :)

On Thursday, my co-worker teammates treated me to a lunch which was pretty tasty. They gave me this book (notice the dog's name is Rocket and the guy's name is Jake):
Which reminded me that(in regards to my first graders, half of whom are checked out at any given time, but are perfectly capable of what I ask them to do)

On Friday, I got to hang out with some of my co-workers and drink some fuzzy navels and down a few jello shots. I called it an "early" night at 11:30. The rest of them stayed out much later. My excuse for leaving was that if I left right then, I'd be able to get 7 hrs of sleep. That didn't happen! Colin's not sleeping well again, and that night I probably got about 4 hours of interrupted sleep.

On Saturday we had a busy house! My friend Stephie came up and we got pedicures, which was so nice in the cold weather. In case you're curious, my nail polish color is "No Spain, No Gain." (dark plummy purple). Then we ate lunch. Thanks for the girl time, Stephie!!

My parents, bro, and his girlfriend came up as well. We had dinner (grilled chicken veggie tortellini of course!), chatted, and did the present thing. I got some cash to buy some much-needed work clothes with. One of these days I'll take a picture of my sad closet to show you all why my clothes are on a week-long rotation. I also got this:
Yes, it's a baby carrier. But it's best for bigger babies and toddlers. Colin likes to be carried.
Annoying? Yes. But it's just the way he is. He likes to see what's going on. If I have to have him up high, I'd rather wear him and be hands-free than hold him and not get anything done.

Does he like it? I think so. He was being a crab.ster. tonight and just wanted to be carried around the house, so I put him in it and after he realized he'd be okay in it, he succumbed to the coziness of it and calmed down.

1 more day left and I am a free woman for 11 days! Christmas break is here! Just in time, too, because while I really do adore my class this year, a few of the boys are starting to wear on each others nerves. Let's hope a good, long break from their classmates will do some good!

Cookies were made

I went to a cookie bake today and had a very low-key mass-cookie-producing good time. There were 6 of us (the 7th had given her cookies to me to distribute). 1 co-worker, 1 former co-worker, 1 principal of the middle school and her mom, 1 middle school art teacher, and 1 partridge in a pear tree.

We brought a batch pre-made, bagged, and ready to share. About half of us also made another kind of cookie while there. We ended up spending about 5 hours baking and frosting, but it didn't seem that long at all. I hadn't seen my former co-worker since June, so it was soooo good to see her again because she's a delight.

It's also interesting to see what other peoples' definition of a classic Christmas cookie is.

I made Peanut butter cup cookies and White chocolate cranberry cookies. I now have about a dozen of the following as well:
-snowballs
-snickerdoodles
-more snickerdoodles?? or maybe they're some lemon creation??
-wreaths made from corn flakes like rice krispie bars
-green and red M&M cookies
-russian tea cakes
-pizelles
-thin mint cookies
-3 dozen cut outs
-meltaways
-sponge cookies. Ever had them? I wasn't a fan.

So if you want cookies, you know where to find them! But if you're looking for sponge cookies, I threw them away. Snickerdoodles are up for grabs :) No fans of them in our house. Not even Colin.

Mom: Notice no spritz on that list. ::hint, hint::

Teddy Bear Park, how we love thee

This is a great little park in Stillwater. It's meant for younger kids, age 7 and younger. We've gone there at least once a week this summer. If you live anywhere near Stillwater and you have kids/grandkids, etc. you should definitely check it out!

Sometimes we go by ourselves as a post-Target shopping treat.

Most of the time we go there with friends.
We've met Jess and Nolan there a few times (this was the shopping that happened after the park. Colin is obviously way more interested in Nolan's cool Crocs than in shopping).

We've met Rachel, Graham, and Corey there.

We've meet Michelle and Andrew there

And on Saturday, we met Leah and Isaac there. Leah takes her super awesome camera with her pretty much wherever she goes, and she got a couple of cute shots of Colin.




Coincidentally, when Colin was born, he received a teddy bear that wears a Teddy Bear Park sweater from the man who funded the park. He wanted each baby born at the hospital in Stillwater to have a teddy bear. A few weeks ago, Colin asked for the teddy bear in his crib. Sometimes he even gives it a good ear rub before he falls asleep. I think he may be in love with the park too.

Now that summer is coming to an end, I go back to work next week and our weekly visits to the park will taper off. I'm already looking forward to next summer's TBP visits!

FOUND

Remember this post?

I found my camera. I'm the jerk.

It was in the diaper bag. The diaper bag I checked at least 5 times.

I found it on Tuesday whilst digging in the diaper bag, looking for my new camera (that I had left in the console in the car) to take pictures of C at the Childrens Museum (we went with Jess and Nolan for our weekly summer playdate).

::hangs head in shame::

So I took some pictures...





MORAL: I really do have to learn to give myself a little more credit. I'm more "responsible" and less air-headed than I think I am. Whenever I misplace something, I automatically think it's gone forever and I spazz out. It all goes back to when I lost my confirmation ring back in high school. Because that really was gone forever. I must come to realize that misplaced =/= lost. Freak out not necessary.

Picks and Pans for 400, Alex.

Potty training:
Colin almost always poops on his potty after breakfast. The rest of the times he poops, it's touch and go. As for pee, sometimes he does it in his potty, sometimes he sits on his potty then stands up and pees on the floor (ugh), most of the times he pees in his diaper.

I did buy some training pants. I put them on him when we're just hanging out at home for awhile--mostly in the afternoons. The first day, he peed in 2 pair and pooped and peed in 1 pair. Today, he sat on his potty and didn't go, so Kevin put his training pants back on, took him outside, and ran back in the house 1 minute later yelling, "Emergency!" holding a bewildered Colin at arms-length with a pair of wet trainers on.

It's all so inconsistent, it drives me batty. But I know that every success with the potty is a good thing. And I want him to feel wet and uncomfortable in his training pants to hopefully motivate him to go in his potty.


Pacifier:
Days 1-6.5 were great. That 7th day, Colin started to realize what was happening and started demanding his pacifier more. I held strong though. It had been a week and I wasn't going to go back now! Day 8 was just as bad. Today is better...he was pretty upset this morning, but after that episode, he got along just fine without it.

Words:
Kevin said Colin said "lawnmower" plain as day. I've heard him say "mawmow"--or something like it--before, but Kevin swears there was an L in the beginning and an R at the end.

Me:
I'm going to run a stinkin' 5K on Sept. 18 with my friend Laura. Not gonna lie--I'm doing this for killer abs and a t-shirt. Today was training day #2 and it has been going surprisingly well, considering I hate running, I have asthma, I taste blood, I hate sweating, and I eventually get shin splints. Today I ran farther than I did on training day #1, so I guess that's a good thing.

Food:
We signed up for e-mealz. Leah told me about it, so we decided to dive in. I went grocery shopping today and spent less than $112 on food for 5 full meals, along with lunch/breakfast/snack items. I made my first e-mealz meal today--poppyseed chicken, almond french green beans, sugared peaches (hello! yum.), and dinner rolls. It was good, and we have enough leftovers for 2. The recipe was super easy, too. Check it out if you are interested in meal planning!

Weekend:
Colin and I are heading down to Roch tomorrow to my parents' house. My mom is hosting a Norwex party, and my friends will be there. I'm hoping to maybe hit up a park while we're down there. I'm sure Colin is sick of the same parks we go to over and over again.

Your reward for reading this:
The day I let C pick out his own socks and shoes (prior to paci-weaning, obv.):

In Stillwater:

Colin LOVES to walk Rocket. Rocket is getting better about going slowly when Colin is holding his leash.

Where the heck we've been (update pt. 2)

Where to start really?

Kevin's brother got married on June 12. I'm sure the ceremony was lovely, but I was in the nursery supervising Colin and missed it. Kevin was in the wedding, and as soon as Colin saw him, he yelled "Dada!" and Kevin kept turning to smile at him, so then Colin tried to squirm off my lap. So...we left the sanctuary to play with toys instead.

Last Sunday, we went to Teddy Bear Park and met up with some of my friends from college, Rachel and Graham, and their son Corey. (I totally stole these from Rachel's blog. Sorry Rach!)
After playing at the park for awhile, we ate lunch at this really cool place with an outside patio area. Colin got into a bit of trouble there, because I let him walk around since a)we were outside and b)there were only 2 other tables with diners. He walked over to a water pipe, turned the lever, and got sprayed with some water. He seemed quite embarrassed :)

Later on that Sunday, my mom came up to visit. She stayed all week long to babysit Colin in the mornings while I taught summer school (after this week, I'll be halfway through!).

It was a rainy week, but we managed to squeeze in a trip to Como Zoo. This was Colin's second time there (the first being in the winter). His favorite animals were the monkeys because, you know, they actually move around. He loved standing at the glass watching them zip and swing back and forth. One monkey ran right up to the glass and put his hand over his eyes as if to see through the glass. Hilarious. And now whenever I do that, Colin cracks up.

I taught my mom how to knit, and now she's working on a scarf. She replaced some velcro that had worn out on Colin's BumGenius diapers. So now it's like we've got 6 brand new ones!

We moved plants around and mulched. My gardens have become so overgrown the past few summers, so it was nice to clean things out and move them to new places. Now let's just hope they survive!

On Friday, we headed up to Duluth so we could see my little brother run Grandma's Marathon on Saturday morning. He did a great job and finished with a time of 4:46, which isn't too shabby for a first-timer. On our drive up towards Two Harbors where the start is, I was dumbfounded that someone would actually RUN that far. And some people do it on a regular basis! We were able to see him at the 5 mile, 12 mile, 20 mile, and finish line points. Here he is at 20 miles.
After we ate some Little Caesars pizza, we headed home.

Weddings and babies

It has been busy here!

This past weekend, one of my favorite girls got married. Laura was a beautiful bride who planned a beautiful wedding. All of the details were meticulously planned. Well done, L Dawg. (I'm so proud of this picture I took).
Because I was a bridesmaid, I had to be in the Cities on Friday night for rehearsal. My favorite friend Kristin (also a bridesmaid) picked me up Friday afternoon. But before that, not only did I have to pack my own bag (plus remember the most important pieces--the dress and shoes!), but I also had to pack Colin's bag. He joined me on Saturday, after being picked up by my parents. Kev went to his brother's bachelor party that night, so he wasn't able to join us. I'm telling you, it's hard to pack a 1 yr old's bag, especially when you're not the one who "finalizes" it before it gets put in the car. I did as much as I could on Thursday night, and turns out I didn't forget anything, and Kevin didn't forget anything I wrote on the "remember to pack..." list either. Whew. We did the usual bridesmaid things. We got our hair done, hung out with the bride, posed for pictures, had a blast, you know. (Me, Laura, Laura's mom, Kristin)
Kristin and I made this AMAZING trail mix for snacking on Saturday. Peanuts, M&Ms, dried cranberries, pretzels, white chocolate chips, and vanilla graham Goldfish. Yummers.

Colin did amazingly well at both the ceremony and reception, despite only having a short nap on the ride there. He was very mellow, not the usual rambunctious bundle of noise he usually is. He wore his tie and stayed up late (past 8:00!), and slept pretty well in the hotel room with my parents.
I had a blast at the reception. I got to catch up with friends, friends' parents, college friends, danced, took pictures in the photo booth, drank a couple of glasses of wine, ate de.li.cious cake, and helped Laura and Joe celebrate their first hours together as husband and wife.

I always tell myself I'm going to take a lot of pictures when I go to big events, but I never do.

On Sunday, my parents, Colin, another favorite friend Stephie, and I hung out at the hotel for awhile, killing time until we could meet my first pseudo-niece, Taylor Hope! Favorite friend Brooke had her baby girl on Thursday, so it was fun to see the mommy and the little lady. Then it was time to head home. I feel like I could've used a day off after the busy weekend. The house is a disaster. You know how it is when you're away for the weekend, and all you want to do when you come home is drop your bag and empty it out later? Yeah. That. Things are finally coming together again, and laundry is slowly getting done.

Funny faces

Colin's expressions are getting to be quite funny. I caught a few of them this weekend. I'm sure you don't mind if I share.

His teeth! (this one isn't funny per se, but it is a good shot of the chompers!)
If drooling is any indication of more teeth on the way, I think we're safe in assuming they are Old Man lip
"I'm-having-so-much-fun-I-need-to-scream-about-it" (usually accompanied by butt-shaking)The Stinkerface:Fun with Daddy:
Caught blowing raspberriesWe spent the weekend doing a lot of little things. On Saturday, the three of us visited Kevin's grandma. She's home now after having her brain tumor removed. I went grocery shopping. I also organized the 3-6 and 6-9 month clothes that Colin has grown out of and put them in the storage room in the basement. Soooo sad he can't wear that stuff anymore.

Today, Kevin worked at the Home and Garden Show to drum up some business. Colin and I met Jess and Nolan for brunch at the Day by Day Cafe in St. Paul. It was some tasty food, and it was fun seeing Nolan walking! We got home at about 1:30 and Kevin's mom came to whisk Colin away so that I could bake some cinnamon swirl bread for his grandma. I also made some freezer meals--2 batches of Sloppy Joes and 2 pans of lasagna. I try to do once a month cooking every month. I usually make enough for 4 separate things. The meals are handy to have around for Monday and Tuesday nights when I teach piano. We can just throw something in the oven and it's done right when I'm done teaching.

So it was a funny face, productive weekend. What more could you ask for?

Catching up in pictures

I know, I've been a bad blogger. I feel bad, I really do. But here's a post in pictures to catch you up with what has happened over the last few days.

In short, Christmas Eve was spent at Kev's Grandma L's. We saw Kev's cousin's son Tyler, who used to be a baby, but is now 3. We only see them at Christmas, and to see that he was a kiddo who was talking and playing with monster trucks on the floor was a real change from the 2 year old we saw last year.

Christmas day was spent at Kev's Grandma F's. Here we saw another cousin's kiddo, Mason, who is 2, I think. This is was also a crazy change from last Christmas.

On Saturday morning, we headed down to Roch to visit my family. We arrived and opened presents immediately. I got a new camera. Now I don't have to rely on Kev to bring his home so I can update my blog. So I practiced using the camera.


The camera has a color tagging function where you can choose a color to tag, and it makes the rest of the picture black and white except for everything that is the color you tagged. For instance: Study of greens:


It was a good time, and even baby got some Christmas presents; a couple pack of onesies and some books to add to the book collection. Baby thanks Grandma :)

Later that night, I went to the local (smoke-free. i heart smoking bans) pub. I invited a bunch of facebook friends I graduated with. About 20-25 showed up throughout the night. It was a lot of fun catching up with everybody. We didn't have a 5 year reunion, so this 9.5 year get together was a good time. Here are some snippets of our good times.




Then Jen and I took a belly picture together. But unfortunately blogger isn't letting me upload it. Boo.

Yesterday, I braved the wintery weather and met up with K mom, L Dawg, and the engaged Sarah and Grant at the Olive Garden. We indulged in soup, salad, and breadsticks and good conversation.


We also found out where the OG stores their cheese graters.


And, lastly, take a good look. This is the baby's room "Before" picture. Although, this is not in it's original state. This is our paint color of choice (as mentioned in previous post, "Swimming" by Sherwinn Williams). We've removed the carpet and trim to make room for the white trim tomorrow and the "wren" colored carpet on Friday. I shall post pictures when those two projects are completed.




And now I must be off to the chiropractor. Cross your everything that I get my Escape back today. I will be back later to post the weekly update, with belly pictures this time :)