Birthdays and such

Yesterday was my 28th birthday.  I decided to take the day off from work.  It kind of started like this:  "Ok, I will take the day off...now what am I going to do?"  "I will cook and bake."  It is just my roommate and I.  "I guess I will bake for people."  "Maybe I should invite my friends over.

So..I did.  I made bruscetta, BBQ shredded chicken with cornbread muffins and fixins', salad, fruit salad, and cupcakes without icing (I ran out of time). 

Because this was last minute on a Tuesday, I didn't know who was coming.  And I cooked waaay too much food.  So now I get to enjoy really, really good food for a while and maybe even host people again sometime very, very soon to use up my unused produce (tomatoes and kiwis anyone?)

I have realized lately how richly blessed I am with so, so, so many different and amazing people who have just added so much to my life.  I just wanted to celebrate them today for my birthday.:)



Today, I decided to tackle the project of the cup holder in my car.  it was a sticky mess and had too much stuff in it to put cups.  My friend Renee taught me to improve by 1% a day.  So...here is my 1%. :)

Documented memories

I am in the middle of searching through a basket full of my journals. I am not sure what to do with them, other than recycle the paper. I guess old habits die hard. I realized one from 1995 when I was in fifth grade was written in cursive and recording menial things I still do in my current journals. Some memories came back as I was reading them. Like: The time my friend Anne Marie had her roommate stay in the commons room in our dorm for a week because they were fighting. When I was baptized (apparently, it was 8.20.95) All the things I liked about my best friend in fourth grade and what we did for our first anniversary as friends. My locker combinations in sixth grade. The fact that I thought that college was like camp you stay at for a long time. How I planned to be cool in high school. My apology letter to some girl, stating that I was only kidding and did not hate her, but that I knew about 50 billion people who did. Why did I staple a pass slip into my notebook? Did I skip that day? I had an awesome friend in high school who made me a word search based out of the things we did, like flirting with guys in grocery stores and decorating cars (no fears...we have reformed from this). Why were we so fixated on prom, other people, and menial things like how cold the school was? I really wonder how grown up I feel most days if I am really that different from the middle schooler who writes in purple ink about crushes, menial everyday things, and the many, many feelings I experience every day.

Flashback Friday

In honor of my triathlon tomorrow, I figured I would post the pic from my second triathlon.  I knew early on Jamie was crazy...little did I know how much I would grow to love her.

My parents should just keep me in a bubble sometimes...a nice, clean, safe bubble

There are many, many things that I am being called to do.  Getting rid of stuff I don't use anymore is one of them.  As a sign God for real wants this to happen, two of my pairs of shoes from work have busted in the last week or so.  Yep, I even hotglued a pair.  I have yet to part with a pair from high school.  I know, I know...I will get rid of it soon enough.



Why the Civic Theater let me into their Green Room is beyond me.  It only took me 20 minutes to try on a $5 dress.  I then badgered my mom no less than 20 times to take a pic of me in it and put it as her phone background.

As for the race...a few more totally awesome things.  I am going to have to use a wetsuit (I have never even tried one on) and I got a Hep-A shot yesterday.  Thankfully, my bicep has FINALLY stop hurting.  Haha...for better or for worse, here it comes!

My life and such

 

You know those days, when you realize, oh...this is actually a really great place to be in life?  I had one of those the other day.  My roommate was working and it was raining outside.  I was too tired to train and really just wanted to relax.  So I made a beautifully simple dinner, some tea, and just sat down and journaled for hours.  I realized...one of these days, I am going to wish I had the time and flexibility to do this.  So...I will just enjoy today for what it is and remember that I may never have a time like this again in my life.

 

 

She was a little obsessed with the baby and has informed her parents that she wants a brother named Conner.:)

Coffee with the morning workout crew.:)

My cousin's graduation Open House was last weekend.  It is just amazing that they are done with high school.  I am super excited, though, that they will be going to college just a bike ride away. :)

 The Farmer's Market was filled with lots of choices for landscaping.  I only bought two flowers from some family friends.

A trip to a free exhibit only assisted me in honing in on these camera-taking skills.

 

These are trays I "borrowed" from college to go sledding.  Upon searching through all of my college stuff to move out, I found them.  So...I requested my sister return them to school.  Instead, she refused and told me that she was going to throw them away.  Throw them away.  I take plastic containers home with me to recycle.  You can only imagine my chagrin when she told me this.

 And lastly, another still life photograph.  Maybe if I touched it up, it would actually look nice.  I guess that that will be another lesson for another day.

When the handicaps become handy

I guess my naivete about bikes and my refusal to pay a lot of money have paid off.  It is really funny to think back, but I have realized now that I have made training for this triathlon harder just because I refused to buy a new swimsuit that was over $60 and didn't take my bike into the shop to be tuned up.  As a result, I swam in two suits that were about to fall apart and created drag and rode a bike that was pretty bad off.  Seriously...I went into the bike shop with a friend recently and when he looked at my bike, he began to find more and more things wrong with it.  Chain lube?  Apparently, I think that is optional.  He asked me if I had crashed.  I told him I didn't know (he was surprised, but really doesn't know how clumsy I really am).  Later I remembered that I had battled with the gravel and lost.  I guess this caused my gear shifter to be lopsided.  In addition, although I was proud of my handiwork in installing my aerobars (which help you to lie flatter on a bike for more aerodynamic speed), I guess that clamped down on my brakes and impeded my ability to turn left.  Seriously, I couldn't turn left.  But did I notice?  No, not really.  So...as I head into this weekend, I will remember all those weekends and nights this winter when I had nothing else to do but study for my license and ride my bike on my trainer.  This all seems to have worked out for the best without me really trying.

Details that are too perfect to work out alone

Cool, cool things are happening. I am so excited about how there are small details that all appear to be working out to something bigger. There has been a natural transition of my job from having mostly court-mandated cases to mostly voluntary clients. I am supposed to be only seeing court-mandated clients starting July 1, but this has popped up early and I am so excited about it.

My cousins also graduated from high school on Sunday (they are twins). Their dad passed away three years ago to the day they passed away. Here is the cool thing. He taught at the same school where they graduated and was a staple in the school as their small town grew into a booming suburb. Their father's dream was to hand them their diplomas on their graduation day. Because he could not, my aunt asked for the principal to hand out the diplomas (per my cousin's request). Their wish was granted and my uncle's dream of my cousins graduating was fulfilled. Did I also mention that they were only given special permission because of my uncle to attend one the best high schools in the country?

The house is coming along nicely, although we need some touches on the walls and a few more plants outside. I have pictures to post, but my camera is at my new house and I am not, so that will just have to wait.

I think that it has been a blessing in disguise to not have had more time to train for this triathlon. I think that if I had more time, I would have overtrained. Currently, I am staving off a few injuries. Minor things, like a sore bicep and metatarsal (how did I do that?), but still a little annoying. Thoughts and prayers the week leading up to this race would be appreciated.