Pumpkin Carving

Tonight was our pumpkin carving night.  We had a small pumpkin for each of the three oldest kids.  Nate even came home from work early to join in the fun.

Step One:  Getting out the pumpkin guts.  Natalie is a hand scooper.  Kelton used a spoon, but at one point decided to try his hand.  I think I feel the same way about it as he did.

Here they are with their carved pumpkins behind them.  Have I ever mentioned that my kids are crazy?

Here's Natalie's creation.  It's Nightmare Moon.  (bonus points to anyone who actually knows who that is)  It doesn't quite look like her, but it was the best Natalie could come up with after I explained why her detailed drawing wouldn't work carved into a pumpkin.

Here's Kelton's.  We told him he could draw anything he wanted, but he wanted it to look like his Halloween costume.  More on that tomorrow...

Here's Damon's.  For a three year old, he has mad pumpkin carving skills.

A week or two ago, I gave the kids a bunch of random materials and some glue to make a picture.  I didn't help them at all.  They did a really great job.  I thought it was funny how Natalie and Kelton's ideas for their pictures and their pumpkins were about the same.

Kelton's picture. 

Natalie's picture.  (My Little Pony)

Damon's picture.  Notice all the D's he drew on the picture.  :)

And during our pumpkin carving, Arie found a Dum Dum sucker and got it open.  We let her keep it, but since she walks around everywhere, we confined her to her chair.

She couldn't decide which end she liked better.

Oh, it goes this way!  Silly girl.

Grandpa Burgess

This post is a little late in coming, but my grandpa, George Dale Burgess, passed away on September 14th, at 94 years old.  He had a stroke, and then got pneumonia and was never able to recover.  My whole family made the trip to Lehi, Utah for the funeral.  The funeral was on Saturday, the 21st.  So we left on Wednesday night after school and work and drove part way to Flagstaff.  The motel we stayed in was a Super 8 and was way better than the previous motels we've stayed at there.  We will have to remember that for future reference.  Doing that took about four hours off our trip, but we still had a lot of driving to do on Thursday.  We found a vacation rental house in the Lehi area, and stayed there with Christy, Rob, Chad and Melanie's families.  It ended up being cheaper than a hotel and much more convenient for everyone.  We spent the day on Friday with family and at the fun center we visited a few months ago when we were in Utah.  The funeral on Saturday was very nice.  It made me a little sad to see my grandma.  I can only imagine how hard it would be to be separated from someone you've spent the last 70 or so years with.  I have such great memories of visiting my grandparents.  I will miss my grandpa, but I am happy that he has been able to move on to something far better.

My Mom and Dad with all of their children.

 

My family

My grandpa was an officer in the Navy during World War II.  So he had military honors at his burial.  After we were done at the grave side, I overheard someone behind me say that everyone should experience a military burial at least once.  I would have to agree.  It was very neat experience.  You feel a sense of pride in the person who served, and also for your country.  We should have prepared the little kids for the guns though.  But I'm not sure I realized that the several men with guns about twenty yards away were going to actually fire shots.  Not real shots... but the kids didn't know that and they were plenty loud and pointed at us.  The kids were pretty scared and very hesitant to uncover their ears afterwards.

Giving the precisely folded flag to my grandma, with Aunt Deonne and Dad at her sides.

On Sunday we woke up and headed out and drove the whole way back home without stopping overnight.  It was a long, all day trip that took about 12 hours, not including stops.  But the kids were really good and it didn't end up being too bad.  It was a quick trip to Utah, but it was worth going.

Here's grandpa's obituary, though I've already mentioned some of the info in it.  I wanted it posted here so it ends up printed in my blog book.

My baby is one!

Arie's first birthday was yesterday.  It is hard to believe it's been a whole year since she was born.  It even makes me a little bit sad.  Sometimes you just want your kids to stay little!

Arie had fun ripping some of the paper off her presents.  I just love this cute little face.

We gave Arie a Fisher Price Ballapalooza and a sippy cup.  (The toy wasn't something we planned on buying, but when I found that $60 toy in the store on clearance for $25, I couldn't leave it there.  Plus, we had no idea what to get for Arie's birthday, so we figured this would work.)  Arie got a really cute outfit from Grandma and Grandpa Burgess and a bouncing elephant toy from Grandma and Grandpa Webb.  And she liked her cards from her grandparents.  I had to rescue them so she wouldn't destroy them.

After Arie opened her presents, she figured she would try to get away with things that she's not allowed to do on a normal day.  Unfortunately, it didn't last for long.  Also, notice the open cupboard... Arie will not leave my cupboards, and their contents, alone.  As soon as Nate gets a spare minute, the baby locks are coming out. 

Of all the presents, I think this one is Arie's favorite.  Should have known that babies are not too hard to impress.  She thinks this sippy cup idea is the coolest thing ever.  If you need to take it away, you have to pry it out of her hands, which results in a lot of angry screaming.

Later in the day, after the older kids got home from school, we all headed out to the park to play.  Poor Arie doesn't get to play outside very often because, #1--she can't walk yet and we live in the land of dirt and rocks, and #2--she still puts everything in her mouth, including dirt and rocks.  So she enjoyed being outside on her birthday.  She loved the baby swing, once she realized it wasn't scary. 

She was not really interested in being restrained for a picture with her sister and brothers.

Here's a little sidetrack from the birthday action.   I've known this before, but in going through my pictures from the day, I noticed that I have a compulsive photo bomber.

Sometimes he is a little more sneaky...

And sometimes he is very much... well... not.  And yes, this was supposed to be a picture of Arie.  Do you see her?

I had no idea what to do for Arie's cake, and since I couldn't ask Arie what she wanted, I asked the other kids.  They decided that a butterfly would be good and I thought it was a great idea.  It turned out cute, though I wasn't overly excited about it.  The butterfly was cute, but I don't really like how I decorated it.  I should have used different colors.  I don't really like yellow.  So why did I use so much yellow?  I have no idea. 

Here's the birthday girl with her cake.  You can see from this picture that the cake looks really big.  It looked big in person too.  Shockingly, it is made from one cake mix in a 9X13 pan, cut into pieces. 

I call this the "what are you doing to my cake, dad?!" picture.  Kind of a fun side note... this same "1" candle has been put on each of our kids first birthday cakes.

This is while we were singing "Happy Birthday" to her.  We sang it throughout the day, and she loved it every time.  And she would always open her mouth, like in this picture.  I think she wanted to sing along, but didn't know how.

Instead of attempting to get the one year old to blow out the candle, we let the other kids do it for her.

Mom and Dad with Arie.  She is mad though, because I had already given her that piece of cake you see in my hand, and she had tasted the frosting.  But then I took it away because Nate wanted to video her eating it.  She was not happy.  Honestly, I can't blame her.  I would have been pretty mad myself.

Messy baby!  But she loved it.

And then she got a bath.  She loves baths.  Her favorite thing to do is sit by the running water and methodically try to grab the stream of water with her hands, though she knows she can't actually grab it.  She enjoys trying and it's cute to watch.  This happy little girl is very much loved by everyone in our family.  Happy birthday to our sweet one year old!

Snowflake Sweet Tri

The Sweet Tri was last Saturday, August 31st, in Snowflake.  It is a sprint distance triathlon with distances of:  525 yard swim, 13.1 mile bike, and a 5K (3.1 mile) run, with the events done in that order.  I didn't have any real specific goals in mind, other than to finish.  But I did want to do the swim in about 11 minutes, the bike in under 45 minutes, and the run in under 35 minutes.  I'll get to the final results later.

 

My dad and my sister, Melanie, also did the triathlon.  We woke up at 5:00 a.m. to get ready and go.  Here I am with my dad, setting up our transition area.  Transition is where you go between each segment of the triathlon.  So after you finish swimming, you run out to transition, where you put on your shoes, helmet, and whatever else before getting on your bike and taking off.  Then you end up back in transition to stash your bike before taking off on your run.  Anyway, here we are setting up all of our stuff before the race.

 

We didn't have to wait too long after the first swimmers hit the pool for it to be our turn.  I have to say, for whatever reason, I was just not feeling it that morning.  I wasn't real excited or nervous or... anything really.  I think either of those things, or both, would have been helpful.  Instead, I had that feeling of, "I don't really want to exercise today."  Not a good mindset.  But it was all I had to work with.  So into the pool I went.  And it was not one of my better swims.  I felt like I was never able to get my breathing in sync.  I never found my rhythm, which ended up costing me energy I wanted to save for later.

Now, I had never before gone straight from a swim to anything else.  I was surprised to find that it took me about four miles on my bike to somewhat recover from the swim.  I thought that first transition would be easier.  But like I said, I just wasn't feeling it.  But, I could tell that I was doing well on my bike.  I pushed it because I knew I could get a decent time.  Here I am finishing up my on my bike, coming back into transition.

Alright, this is the point where I was trying not to think about the fact that I still needed to run a 5K.  I was just trying to focus on getting my bike back and then moving my legs to start running.  I could already tell that the altitude was taking it's toll on my ability to breathe.  I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I live/trained at about 3,000 feet and this triathlon was at almost 6,000 feet.  And I'm sure the remnants of bronchitis weren't helping my breathing much either.

You may wonder why I included this next picture, since I look about as awesome as a drowned, dying rat.  But I call this picture, "Contemplating the Goo."  You see that stuff in my hand?  That particular one is called Power Gel, though I had some Gu brand that I used too.  It is a packet of goo stuff that gives your body a fuel/energy boost during events such as this.  Let me describe the consistency of this stuff.  I would imagine that if you got a bunch of those disgusting, plump, horned tomato worms and mashed them into a paste, it might resemble this stuff.  Now, it is flavored, and doesn't taste bad... but man, is it unpleasant to swallow.  You swallow it with water, but still.  By the time I got to this last transition, I had already taken one before the swim, and one before the bike, and if I ever needed one, it was right then before the run.  But I was so sick of the stuff.  So this is me, bracing myself and talking myself into literally just sucking it up one more time.  And I gagged on this last one more than the other two.  It was hard to get down.

And then I was off on my run.

 I noticed right away that my stomach didn't feel real great.  I'm not saying the goo didn't help, but I felt like I could feel all those gag reflex-triggering packets of stuff, plus the water I used to get them down, just sitting in my stomach bouncing around as I ran, and it made me feel sick.  That's not something I usually deal with when I run, so it caught me off guard.  It took about half the run for that to settle down a bit.  Ugh... seriously, sitting here thinking about that goo is turning my stomach.

The run was tough.  I had a hard time getting air in my lungs.  I ended up walking some--most of it in the first mile because I just needed the recovery time.  And I ran really, really, slow.  I don't think I've ever ran so slow.  But, I realized as I was running, that I was doing all I could do--and that had to be good enough.

Here I am, coming in the final stretch to the finish line.

And done!  I can't go without mentioning my amazing husband.  Nate has been the most supportive person in all of this.  He has come home from work early so I could make it to the pool and he went in to work late many times so I could finish an early morning bike ride.  He always believed in me and never thought I was crazy, even when I thought I was.  And he was more proud of me than even I was when I crossed the finish line.  I am sure lucky to have him.

Here's all three of us at the finish line.

So my final time was 1:34 (one hour, 34 minutes) which landed me in 24th place out of 50 women.  I have to keep telling my competitive self that that's really not that bad.  (I'm used to sports like basketball where you either win or lose.  This is a different mindset for me.) 

Here is the breakdown of my times.  Swim-- 11:43 (17th overall).  Bike-- 44:22 (10th overall).  Run-- 34:07 (33rd overall).  So, other than my swim being a little longer that I wanted, I met my goals for my times.  I was even amazed that my run was under 35 minutes, because like I said, I was going sooo slow.  I was very happy with my bike time.  The course had some pretty good uphills and I still got the time I wanted.  I actually think I won't be able to do much better until (or if) I get a better bike.  Momentary sidetrack--it is a little annoying to me that part of your ability to perform well comes down to how much money you have to buy a nice bike.  I didn't realize bikes were so different.  But they are.  I have a hybrid bike that is between a mountain bike and a road bike.  The road bikes definitely perform better.  It was a bit frustrating to be able to pass people on an uphill, when I could tell they were struggling, and then have them be able to pass me on the straightaways because their road bike is just capable of higher speeds.  Anyway, that's the way it is.  And I'm not going to spend thousands of dollars for a bike just so I can knock five minutes or so off my bike time for a once a year triathlon.

Shortly after I finished, I went over to check the posted times.  I noticed I was having a lot of trouble seeing the numbers from just two feet away.  I couldn't figure out what was going on with my eyes.  Then ten or so minutes passed and I realized that I had a bit of a headache.  Which then continued to get worse.  Then I realized what was going on.  Migraine blindness.  I was getting a migraine.  I'd only ever had two before.  The first one was random but the second one was a result of the first time I ever rode my bike 13 miles (when I hadn't been training yet at all) and then immediately ran a mile afterward, just too see how hard this triathlon thing would be.  So, the same thing was happening again.  I was physically ready for this thing--as evidenced by the fact that, other than the migraine, I felt just fine afterward and didn't get sore or anything.  I'm pretty sure the migraine was caused by lack of enough oxygen.  And this migraine was a killer one.  Instead of being able to hang around, I had to have my mom come pick me up so I could retreat to the couch with an icepack on my head for the next few hours.  If you've ever had a real migraine, I don't need to explain any further.  If you've never had one... just be grateful.  Really grateful.  Let's just say, there is a reason it's not just called a bad "headache."  What is super unfortunate is that the stupid migraine ended up essentially robbing me of my accomplishment.  I never really got to feel excited about this huge accomplishment that I had been working so hard for.  It's taken me some time to be able to look back on this and feel some pride in what I was able to achieve. 

Okay, here are a few random other things and pictures.

That weekend we got to meet Melanie's....Tyler.  (She informed me that "boyfriend" sounds too much like high school, so I won't use that word.  :) )  It was fun to meet him and spend the weekend with him.  Tyler was our behind the scenes camera man and did a great job getting pictures of the three of us throughout the triathlon.  Oh, and I should mention my awesome sister...3rd place women's overall with a time of 1:18.  After swimming and biking, she ran her 5K in 22:48!  Ridiculous.  Yeah, I can do that too.  In my dreams.

I love this picture.  Look at my cute parents!

And speaking of more awesome... let's talk about my dad.  He will be 63 in a few months.  And this is his second year doing this triathlon!  I barely beat him.  I mean, barely.  Like 7 seconds, barely.  It's not that I think 63 is that old, but I'm only 29!  Go out and look at most 63 year olds and see how many of them would actually be able to do a triathlon, let alone post a good time.  I think it is absolutely amazing.  I hope I am even half that awesome when I am in my 60's.

 

And now for my *note to self* section, or I guess you could call it my *what I learned for next time* section, or in other words...you can skip this section if you want.  First off, I do plan on doing it again next year.  I plan on keeping up on my running and greatly improving it over this next year.  I realized the other day that I really only ever ran, without walking, a full 5K just about a month ago for the first time.  I've come leaps and bounds in my ability to run.  When I first started, a continuous mile seemed insurmountable.   I'm serious.  Now I can run a mile easily without hardly breaking a sweat and without breathing heavily at all.  Well, at least I can at 3000 feet.  :)  I am at the point where a two mile run feels about perfect.  It's fairly easy, but enough to push me for the last little bit.  Over this next year, I want my three mile run to get to that point.  I want it to be easy.  And I actually enjoy that I can run.  (Notice the careful choice of words...I didn't say that I enjoy running.)  I don't want to lose that.  I've worked too hard for it. 

 

Another thing is my transition time.  My first transition was terrible--  3:12.  Not many people took over three minutes.  Most people were between one and two minutes.  Knocking off that extra minute and a half or so is an easy way to move up the rankings a few people.  I went kind of slow because I thought the extra time would help me recover a bit.  In hindsight I can see that for the first few minutes of the bike, it is a slightly hard adjustment.  Taking an extra minute or two before starting did nothing to make it easier.  So, for next time, I don't want to have to adjust my wardrobe at all in between the swim and the bike.  Coming out of the pool, I pulled on a shirt and shorts.  I'm sure everyone is aware of how easy it is to pull on clothing when you are wet, though I did try to quickly towel off.  Next time I will find shorts and a shirt that can double in the pool and on the bike.  I know they make actual Tri shorts, to the tune of $100.  I plan on finding something much, much cheaper though.  I also took about a minute longer than I needed to on my second transition, which again, really didn't do anything to help me recover before starting the run.

 

I've got to do some training at higher elevations.  A few days before the race I was mentioning to someone about how I was afraid of what the elevation difference would do.  She mentioned that I should run in Madera Canyon--which is 20 minutes from my house, is beautiful, cooler, and has a much higher elevation.  I had never even thought of that.  I will have to do that some, starting next summer.

The goo... I wish there were some way to know how helpful it actually was to me.  The problem is that I felt like by biggest nemesis was lack of air, not energy.  But I do know that the goo made me a little sick.  I will use it next time, but I don't think I will use three of them.  I will maybe use one before the race starts and then another one before the run. 

 

Final note to self: don't get bronchitis before the next triathlon and a migraine after.  I've really gotta work on that one.

This week's totals

I didn't quite get the numbers I was hoping for this week.  But I guess that is to be expected when you end up with a minor case of bronchitis.  I got a cold about a month ago, but it wasn't bad.  Then about two weeks ago, it morphed into a cough.  The cough has gotten progressively worse since then.  It wasn't causing too many problems with my exercise, but this week, it was.  I even took one full day off mid-week and did nothing because my lungs just couldn't take it.  Then I took Damon to the dr. because he had super labored breathing and couldn't get out more than 2-4 words before having to stop and take a breath.  He has bronchitis.  (He's doing fine...)  Then I made a decision.  I have worked too hard for this thing, spent too much money, etc, etc... to end up either not being able to do it, or doing it anyway and being super sick.  Under normal circumstances, I wasn't bad enough to even think of going to the doctor.  But, I didn't want to take the chance of getting worse instead of better.  The doctor I went to understood my desire to be able to perform to the best of my ability in my triathlon.  He hooked me up with three different prescriptions to help me.  I only went to the doctor yesterday, but the stuff is already helping.  Though it is clear after today's workout that I need to give my lungs a few days of rest to recuperate.  Good thing tomorrow is Sunday.  :) 

Anyway, here are my totals.  And I tried to add a second swim in this week but arrived to find the pool closed.  I will admit, I lost track a bit because I ended up cutting a few of my workouts short and I didn't write my numbers down.  These numbers are what I'm sure I actually did.  It's possible that I might have done a little more.

Swim: between a half and one mile.  I didn't attempt to keep track.
Run: 11 miles
Bike: 32 miles

Anyway, not great.  But it will have to do.  And I guess it's not terrible considering I was sick and I took one full day off.  So the plan for this next week is to get a couple of good workouts in on Monday and Tuesday.  Then I will head for Snowflake on Wednesday and mostly relax so I have fresh muscles for Saturday morning!

Triathlon progress report

The day of my demise triathlon is coming up very soon.  Only 13 more days to go.  I've been doing my best to get ready, and hoping it is enough.  This past week I've stepped it up and hit the training harder than ever before.  On Monday, I was even able to run a full 5K at my fast (for me) starting speed without slowing down at all.  I've never been able to do that.  I've always had to slow down sometime during the last mile.  Anyway, I know these distances are not stellar when compared to an actual exercise enthusiast, but they are good for me.  Here are my totals for the week:

Swim: approx. 3/4 mile
Run:  10 miles
Bike:  36 miles

I was only able to swim on one day.  I hadn't swam in about a month and a half, and the time off took its toll.  It was harder than I remembered.  But, it also could be that my muscles had just had it by that point and were more tired to begin with.  On Saturday I did a 14 mile bike ride followed, about a half hour later, by a 3 mile run (which are about the distances in the triathlon) for the first time ever.  Almost the whole time I was running, I felt like my legs were screaming, "What do you think you are doing?!  STOP!!"  I'm not sure my legs have ever been so tired.  Remember my post a while back where I told you that I thought runners were crazy?  Well, I changed my mind.  Triathletes are crazy.  I think this thing really just might kill me.

Here's to another hard core week!

Who sings this?

A song comes on the radio...

Natalie: "I think this is Lady Gaga."
Damon:  "I think is it Michael Jackson!"
Kelton:  "Yeah, I think it is Baby Gaga."
Natalie:  "No, it's Lady Gaga."  (she mispronounced the Gaga part)
Kelton:  "Uh, that doesn't make any sense!"
Me:  "Guys it's not either of them.  And Natalie it's pronounced 'Ga-ga.'"
Natalie:  "Oh.  Mom, that's a really stupid name for a person."

Kids sure have a way of putting the humor back in life. 

And for not really knowing who Lady Gaga is, Natalie and Kelton pretty much have it down. 

And Natalie was relieved to find out that someone did not name their child Lady Gaga and that she has a "real" name.

Savings, schmavings. Here's to our new car!

Apparently we don't think we need a savings account, because every time we start really building one up, we end up needing to buy something big.  Last year's example was a house.  This week's example is a car.  But I guess it's for things like this that we have the savings account in the first place...

We knew that Nate's car, which he drives about 50 miles round trip every day, was going to need to be replaced sometime in the near future.  It was a 2004 Ford Focus, so it was about 10 years old(depending on when it was first purchased), and had 130,000 miles on it.  And it was starting to have problems.  In the past couple of years we have had a few $1000+ repairs on it, along with some that were more in the couple-of-hundred-dollar range.  We've always fixed it and moved on.  Well, last Friday or Saturday the car started smoking and making a noise.  Nate thought the AC compressor was going out, and he was right.  We took it in and found out that it was going to cost $800-$900 to fix and, totally unrelated, the water pump had a slow leak and would need future attention.

We knew that on a good day, with everything in the car working, we would only be able to sell it for maybe $2000.  So, instead of fixing the car, we decided to call it quits and just trade it in and get a new car.  We had hoped to wait until the new year to start shopping around for another car, but decided now was going to have to be the time because we couldn't justify the expense to fix the car when we could use that money on a newer one.  And the dealership ended up giving us $500 for it as a trade in.  So, it ended up breaking us almost even with what we could have sold it for, after paying for the repair, without the hassle of actually having to find someone to buy it.

On Saturday, we drove into Tucson at dinnertime/bedtime to go car shopping with all four kids in tow.  In case you are wondering, it was as super fun as it sounds.  We got some ideas, then came home.  Then on Monday, after the kids got home from their first day of school, we took the three oldest kids over to a neighbors house (we kept Arie with us) so we could hopefully go purchase something.  But this time, we went to the local Jim Click dealership here in Green Valley instead of driving in to all the ones on the automall.  They even brought one of the cars down from Tucson that we had been looking at so we could test drive it.  We didn't end up getting that one though.  We stopped considering it the minute we found out it didn't have cruise control.  It was a 2012 automatic car, with no cruise control!  The salesman told us that cruise control doesn't actually come standard on a lot of cars.  I couldn't believe that.  It seems so crazy!  Who voluntarily wants a car with no cruise control?

Anyway, we ended up with a 2012 Ford Focus SEL with 22,800 miles.  If you can't tell from the picture, it is a dark silver charcoal color.  I don't know the actual name of the color.  And I think Nate is having fun with all of the extra features the SEL (as opposed to the more standard SE) model has.

It was a little more than we were wanting to spend (aren't they always?), but it had half as many miles as the other cars we were considering for only about $1500 more.  Lower mileage was the one thing we were willing to pay a bit more for, since Nate will be putting so many miles on it.  And then we ended up paying to extend the warrantee, which is something we never do.  But our Costco membership made it almost half price.  So, for about $1000 we were able to extend the manufacturer's warrantee of 3 yrs or 36,000 miles to 5 yrs or 100,000 miles.  The warrantee will pay for basically anything that ever needs to be fixed, except for things like tires and breaks.  With all the car repairs we have paid for in the past several years, we figured the extra money would be worth the peace of mind of knowing we won't have to pay for any car repairs with this car for a long time.

So there it is.  Now we are feeling the weight of purchasing something so expensive, and hoping we made the right choice.  But at least it's nice to know that Nate is now driving something reliable. 

*As a side note, I haven't even driven this car yet.  We ran out of time when we were purchasing the car (Nate drove it, of course), and Nate has been working so much since that the car hasn't been here at any reasonable time of day for me to take it for a drive.  :)

Back to School

Today was the first day of school!

Natalie is starting 3rd grade at the intermediate school and has Miss Ramirez.

Kelton is starting kindergarten and has Mrs. Vaterlaus.

They are both so excited for school to start.  They have a dress code, but the Primary School sells shirts that are dress code approved.  Kelton has hardly been able to wait to wear his Owl shirt.

Headed off to school.  Normally they will ride the bus, but Nate always takes them on the first day of school.