Just Have to Ask

Why did my boys decide to start sleeping in THIS week?? It would have been much appreciated at the BEGINNING of the summer. Really did you not catch on to the fact that school starts TUESDAY! Geesh.

Side note: FYI - the pickles Dan made turned out great! We are planning another batch...okay Alicia is planning on DAN making another batch. Something about being absolutely freaked out about slicing things right now.

Side note 2: 20 hours until Elder Ian walks off the plane. We aren't counting down at all!

Side note 3: Is it normal for your whole arm to feel numb days after you sliced your finger? I'm hoping it is just a side effect of the medication or the bandaging. BTW - Loratab is no longer my friend. I used to swear by it post-surgery...now I think it just wants to be cruel to me. If I'm not pregnant, I don't want to feel like I'm pregnant!

Side note 4: Do you realize how much you use your middle finger? Especially on your dominant hand? I was in tears last night, tired of not being able to do things I need to do myself. Oh, and because I keep on slamming my hurt finger in doors. Didn't know I used that finger to shut doors. What an eye opening experience.

There you go. Thanks for tolerating Alicia's random rantings! Hope your week is better than mine.

Dumb Dumb Alicia

WARNING!!!  THOSE WITH A WEAK STOMACHE SHOULD PROBABLY JUST SKIP THIS POST!!

Yep, if my day couldn’t get any crazier, I had to add to it.  During lunch I decided to get to work on making pickles out of the gazillion cucumbers we have harvested.  Dan pulled out my new slicer/dicer and about 5 slices into it Alicia managed to slice the end off her finger.  Dan took one look at it, got the kids to the neighbors and booked me over to Urgent Care just praying that we wouldn’t have to go to the ER.  He was very cool and collected.  Me on the other hand---FREAKING OUT!!! 

We got into Urgent Care and they got me calmed down---Valium, wonderful drug.  Since we didn’t fish the tip off of the cutting board they decided to just cauterize it so the bleeding could stop and I could start healing faster.

2nd WARNING – PICTURES!

Luckily it was only about 1/8 of an inch off the tip and it missed my nail for the most part.  Crappiest part is the bandage.

I was just grateful that it wasn’t my pointer finger, but I am discovering how much I use that middle finger. (hee hee, I so funny) Things are going to be awkward for the next few weeks.

Bountiful Tri 2011

Last weekend Amy and I hit our 4th Tri.  (Can you believe it?)  We went a little bit more out of our comfort zone and traveled up to Bountiful.  May not seem far, but when you have bikes strapped precariously to the back of the car and you are pelting down the freeway at 70 mph, it was a little nerve-racking getting there.  That and it was the first Tri that neither of us had ever seen the route or the facilities.  But, we made it up just fine and had a FREAKIN’ AWESOME time! 

Definitely one of the more enjoyable races.  It was another reverse tri (which I’m now wondering if the reverse is the normal when you are not doing open water?)  We were much more easy going, and just had fun watching people and gabbing.  We were both excited because this time my neighbor let me borrow her street racing bike for the race.  WAHOO!!  I would no longer be left in the dust with my lil’ ol’ mountain bike.  I have to say the bike made all the difference!

Goal:  Neither of us really set one.  It is hard to compare races when there are different distances and routes, but while we were starting out we decided to shoot for about 1 hour 22 minutes. 

5k Run (closer to 3.5 mile run): 29:52

Wahoo!  Under 30 minutes.  It definitely felt longer than a 5k, but I still had great legs when I finished.  I was a little irritated that the race didn’t begin until 8:30am, oh and then they were 10 minutes late starting.  The sun was out in full force, which made the last half of the run route a little bit too hot, but we survived.

12 mile Bike:  37:37  (hee hee, look how awesome that number is!)

Okay, an awesome time in more ways than one.  I couldn’t believe it.  I borrowed the bike a few days before the race to get some practice in and was consistently shaving 2-4 minutes off my normal routes.  I was excited, but nervous to try it out in a race.  First off, I didn’t have a spare tire, so I was praying I could at least make it to the turn around without a flat.  Second, the pedals had cages to hold my feet and I had to adjust to mounting and dismounting without falling off or tipping the bike over. 

What can I say about the course?  It was FAST!  I think we averaged close to 19 mph (which in training I’m lucky to break 16) and the course was great!  It was smooth and relatively flat.  There were times I almost wanted to just slow down and enjoy the ride a little more. 

Biggest milestone was that there was one intersection that the cops would not stop traffic, so we had to stop at the red light. On the bike out we were the first ones on the red light.  Which meant we had a pile of people behind us and had to take off hard to not get caught in the group.  Let’s just say on the way back we pushed it to not have to stop at that stupid light again.  (Not to mention we didn’t want to add another minutes onto our ride.)

350 Meter Swim: 8:55

The one Bleh of the race.  I was hoping to get closer to 8 minutes, but was not impressed with the facilities.  They did it as 25 yard lengths instead of the 50 meters which made it really difficult for the swimmers to spread out.  Add on that the sides of the pool were slick which made it difficult for push offs.  It was also really difficult trying to work your way through the lane when people (cough, cough, men) didn’t seem to understand that you swim on the right to let people pass on the left.  Oh well, after kicks, jabs, bumps, and bruises, I got into a little bit of a rhythm and could at least jump out of the pool quickly. 

Final Time:  1 hour 18 min 18 sec  (5th place in my division!!!)

Wahoo!!  I beat my PG time by 30 seconds with an extra 3 miles on the bike and a longer run!!  We rocked it!  I was also excited to come in 27th out of 127 women. 

Wow, one more race to go in September.  I have 4 more weeks to try and shave just a little more time off.  When did I go from “just finish the race” to “I wonder if I can place in this race?”

G is for Garrick

I guess it is time to start getting caught up again on our summer.  I taught a class at the beginning of this week, and man it wiped me out.  No motivation to do anything with the computer.  So here we go, I will start with something simple, and hope to get caught up on everything else before next week!

Back in mid-July (yep, going back a ways.  Dan finally sent me the pictures) Dan started taking off from work on Fridays to use up surplus vacation time and we were trying to come up with family activities.  So, we woke the boys up at 6am to hike the “G” on the mountain above our home. 

The boys have wanted to hike the G since we moved in.  Ever since the first time they saw the house they thought that someone put the G up there to stand for Garrick’s name.  I put them off all winter telling them there was too much snow and mud, and finally caved in when Haden told me there was no way there was still mud on the mountain.

Anyway, back to 6am, the boys were super excited to finally hike up the mountain.  We could barely hold them back.  They were shocked to find out the G was  a vinyl fence-like structure that sits on the ground and not painted rocks like the Y.  They loved trying to figure out where things were in our neighborhood, and watching the sun come across the valley.

We managed to make it up there and back by 8am, which meant a trip to 7 Peaks with Dad!  Sometimes I wonder where I get the energy to keep up!

Is the King Necessary in Chess?

Dan has been teaching Connor how to play chess recently. That means that Connor is now teaching Haden how to play chess. It usually leads to tears and trauma when things don't turn out to Haden's satisfaction. They were playing together really well tonight, and Dan looked at the chessboard.

Dan: "Where are the kings?"

Haden: "We don't play with the kings. They are dumb, they only move one space at a time."

I guess this means there are no losers huh?