Downward Spiral

It's so true that you really appreciate your health when you're not feeling well. Things got weird on Wednesday. I was feeling, there's no other way to describe it, 'off.' I drove to Umstead to do a run workout and when I got out of my car I had this overwhelming desire to NOT run. It was a beautiful day and I didn't have time to workout the day before so there was no reason for this. But then I started running and it went downhill fast. I was having bad chest pains, not really crampy pains but something totally different and I was just not feeling good. After 5min I turned around and walk/jogged back to my car. This is so not like me! It was almost like I was on auto-pilot. I went home and set up on the couch with my computer. I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home that day.

Thursday morning I woke not feeling any better. I went into work and by noon I was shivering so badly and feeling so horrible that I decided to call it a day. I went home and bundled up, got under the covers and turned the heat on. I had my work computer set up next to me so I could answer any urgent emails. I knew I had a fever and doing all this was not going to help but I was so cold! Marty got home in the afternoon (he had been down in Miami for a couple of days) and took my temperature: 102.8! No wonder I felt so crummy.

I really wish there was some way to take a bunch of drugs that will knock you out when you're feeling like this. They always say rest and fluids are the most important things, so I say, put me under with an IV drip so I don't have to actually feel all this and not be able to rest or get any fluids down. Michael Jackson's doctor was onto something (minus the dying part).

Now I am on day 4 of no working out, and I'm totally turning into that athlete that is all "OMG I'm am so slow and out of shape and my races are going to be horrible and why bother blah blah blah" It does sort of stink that I am signed up for a 10K next weekend. I'll still do it but I'll definitely have to adjust the goals.

Ok, time for Logan pictures.

I took him to a local pumpkin patch last weekend (Marty was down in Wilmington cheering for people at B2B). I could not for the life of me get this kid to look at me and smile! It was like he was going out of his way to not look at me. And when he did, he would have the most ridiculous look on his face, as you'll see. In his defense, he was pretty tired and ended up taking 5hrs worth of naps (!) He doesn't nap well at daycare and seems to want to catch up on the weekends.

This is better

He was very excited the other night when he was eating

And he fairly recently started waving and clapping (I was waving at him behind the camera)

Photo with Ramses

It was a little late because we were traveling on Logan's actual 10 month 'birthday' but I still tried to take a picture of him and his stuffed Ramses.  This didn't go so well. He would not stop moving! I posted one to the "Logan Month by Month" in the facebook album, but here are all of them.

Long Weekend Trip

Packing for a trip with a 10 month old is no joke. I felt like I was packing for two days straight. I am told it does get easier as they get a little older - right now you have to think of all sorts of contingencies while traveling (hunger, diaper changes, toys, extra outfits, etc etc). I love flying Southwest; everything just seems so much easier with them. Unfortunately, Southwest doesn't yet fly into Pensacola so we were on Delta, with a layover in Atlanta. I swear, their 'zone' boarding takes 3 times as long as Southwest.

Logan was spoiled rotten by my sister and her family while Marty and I went to Tallahassee for the weekend. I'm pretty sure they liked him, but he's very hard not to like :)

In Tallahassee we got to reunite with our Aussie friends, John and Bron. They were featured heavily in Trippin' 06 (our trip around the world where we hung out in Australia for 4 months, 2 weeks of which was at there house). Bron brought Logan a kangaroo stuffed animal which will be hard to keep away from Tassie. She also brought me two bags of TimTams and a very cute Lorna Jane running top.

We had a lot of fun in Tallahassee, reuniting with Marty's former teammates for a swimming reunion. At the game, they were recognized on the field during a timeout and they let the wives and kids go down there, too. So neat to be on the field in a packed Doak Campbell Stadium!



A static picture of the tomahawk chop never comes out very good



Bron and I on the field!



Logan has discovered the fun game of throwing things on the ground



Cousin Haileigh was great with Logan



Amie the dog is very old, but she had a new lease on life with a baby constantly dropping food on the floor.



Logan spent a lot of time napping; the Houser's tired him out!



More shopping?!



They went to look at one of Haileigh's prospective high school's...Logan was not impressed.



For kind of a skinny baby, he always tries to eat everyone else's food.

And on the workout front for me, mainly I'm running with about one swim a week. Enough for it to never feel very good ;) Running has been going well - I had a great long run the other week and some solid workouts, but this past weekend was kind of a bust. I'm hoping to get back on track. I'm doing a cross country 5K this weekend, a 10K in a couple of weeks, another 5K on Thanksgiving and then the half marathon in Kiawah, SC in early December.

Weekend Roundup

We had our last open water swim race of the year on Saturday morning. We were planning on me bringing Logan and saving $$ on a babysitter since as of one week prior the participant list was low. Then all of the sudden *poof* a bunch of people entered and 'Um hi, Saint Rita, I know it's Friday afternoon but want to come watch Logan starting at 5:45 am tomorrow?'

Now I was fully in charge of check in which meant I got to delegate who got to do what. Since all of my volunteers are nice and happy they say, "Put me wherever." Except for the ones that are on to me (I got a: I'm not doing t-shirts this time! from one saavy volunteer). I happily did body marking which is the easiest station - no questions or arguments just strip down and let me draw on your biceps.

I really liked the shirt.

That's a silouhette of Scott Mundell running out of the ocean. He was a good friend and teammate of Marty's at FSU who died from complications due to a brain tumor 10 years ago.

I didn't swim. I could've, but I seriously didn't think about it since the entire time I thought I would have Logan with me. When someone asked why I wasn't swimming I realized I'm not all that smart sometimes.

I ended up watching the exciting finishes and cutting the chip bands off of people's ankles. I didn't like this job and will be delegating this one in the future, also. I hate feet and I was way too close to people's feet. No surprise, but most women's feet are much nicer than men's. And hairy ankles - ewww.

So I high tailed it out of there and left Heidi alone to get the chips when Marty told me to announce awards. Until I realized I had to be on a mic and have everyone stare at me. This is not my cup of tea. BUT it does outweigh feet so the awards were read.

We had a Master's swim team party that night where I was talked into doing a long run Sunday morning at 5:30 am.  It was surprisingly awesome running at Umstead in the dark that early in the morning. I ran for 1hr30min and it flew by. And THEN, because I was taunted on facebook, I woke up this morning and went to Master's practice. Marty doesn't coach this one so he could stay home and be on Logan patrol. Except Logan woke up right before I was going to get up so I fed him and coaxed him back to sleep making me late. But still. Boo. Yah.

And Logan had his 9 month checkup which was really his 9.5+ month checkup since it got postponed due to him being sick. But because he was sick he had lost some weight so his stats are off (in my opinion). 23.5% in weight, 83% in height.  He is on an eating spree now and loves real food much more than baby food. He will pretty much eat anything we give him, although he does seem to have some allergies/sensitivies to some things (like eggs, and maybe some others). Nothing too serious; he just gets a bit red around his mouth. He also has been waking up in the middle of the night hungry - argh this never ends. You go from not getting woken up for weeks to this. Anyways, I don't really mind when he does drink a bunch if he wakes up - it's if he wakes up and doesn't want to eat. Then I'm all, dude, WTF. The hard part for me is falling back asleep after. He drinks himself into a coma and I'm lying in bed wide awake.

Wilmington YMCA Triathlon Weekend

This year we rented a crazy sweet house on Wrightsville Beach with 9 other friends. We stayed all weekend and had a great time.

Marty and I drove down to Wilmington with plenty of time to pick up our packets and a bunch of pizza for the gang. Marty decided to do the swim/bike and just walk the extremely long way to T1 so as not to hurt his foot. Saddest thing ever - you get out of the water in 2nd place and then are passed by everyone and their brother. He said it took him 5min to get to T1, and unfortunately the mat for the swim exit was there.

Anyways, the weekend can be summed up like this: lots of yummy food, plenty of dessert, copious amounts of alcohol, beach, laughs, and a triathlon to kick things off.

Our house was maybe 2 miles away from the transition, so all of us doing the race biked down in the morning (except for Marty who deemed our 5:30am departure time WAY too early). I got all set up and then rode the trolley down to the swim start with Cari where I was very lucky and scored a chair to sit in since I had close to an hour before my wave went off. The crew hung out and the time went surprisingly quick. Tori and I got in the water that was regrettably not wetsuit legal to warmup, and after swimming out a bit we also realized there was barely any current this year. So much for a fast swim.

The first age group women's wave, 30-39, and 6th wave of the day, went off at 7:25. I took a great line and had a decent time. This swim is a curvy point-to-point and the buoys are just used for siting and you don't have to actually go around any of them. So it's a bit of free for all after the first long stretch and people are all over the place. I cut it close to an island that is out there and even hit bottom which forced me to do a couple of dolphin dives. Good thing we practice those at our open water swim clinics.

2 girls in my wave (and also my age group) got out of the water before I did, but I managed to pass one of them on the painful long run to transition (ouchie on the feet), and the other one I passed while in T1.

The bike went pretty well; got caught behind some slower cyclists on the 'no-passing' bridge, but who didn't.  I tried to work hard and never felt all that good, which I realize you really aren't supposed to in a sprint. I also didn't let the fact that I was passing a lot of men give me a false sense of security that I was going fast. I kept pressing the whole way. I'm not a huge fan of this bike course as the roads are kind of crappy and several times cars got in between myself and other cyclists causing me to slow way down and figure out how to get by safely.

The run was sort of the same as my bike. I never felt great but pushed hard. For most of this race I really felt like I was fighting for everything - not many smiles or waves to friends this time. I had to dig for it all. 

I ended up first overall female and was super happy with it (here are the full results). This is my last triathlon of the season and I am really proud of myself for coming back post baby and having a great season, even if all my races were local sprints. I remember being 6 months pregnant watching everyone at this race last year and I'm thrilled that I could be here this year and win the whole thing.

After the awards ceremony, we all went out to lunch and then half of us crashed hard while the other half went to the beach which was walking distance from our house. That night we grilled out and had a fantastic meal and delicious cake (it was Kari's birthday weekend) before the boys and girls split up. The boys went and hung out at The Lighthouse Brewery and the girls rallied late at night to ride the beach cruisers down to the bars and skanky club. It was really fun.

Sunday was a short, easy bike ride before more beach time.  Most people left sometime Sunday, but the Aren's and Gaal's stayed until Monday morning so we were able to beach cruise it down again for a dinner out and more beer. This week will be all about detoxing from beer and too much food!

Too Busy to Blog

We flew to Florida 2 weeks ago.

Logan met his cousins, Cate & Jamie.

He had a cold.

We took a family picture.

It was great seeing the Gaal side of the family. Florida is so stinking hot and humid! At first I thought the humidity was causing a bit of curl in Logan's hair, but they are still here. It's sort of funny, just a few random curls on the side of his head.

Also, rest in peace Baby Bjorn. On the full flight back from Tampa, completely frazzled with an extremely squirmy, not happy to be sitting on mom or dad's lap baby, we forgot to grab it from the overhead bin. Even though I immediately filed a lost item report, Southwest says they haven't found it. My bet is someone else found it and understood what a find it was with all the extra back support. I'm so depressed about this.

We do luckily have the basic version graciously given to us by my sister in law.

The next week at daycare, Logan got bit on the arm by some other kid who wanted a toy. We'll be working on his right hook now.

I won a 5k but the time was so horrendous I'm not even going to say it.

We went to the Triple A baseball championship held at the Durham Bulls stadium. This is what the Bull does when someone hits a homerun. There were lots of them.

Logan is a Durham Bull's fan, too. He's also 'soooo big!'

This week at daycare, he got hand, foot and mouth disease. Once his fever broke, he was acting like himself again. But before that - the poor kid. He still has some mouth sores and isn't eating as much as normal but other than that he's good. Marty and I are crossing every finger and toe in hopes that we don't get it as it's supposed to be horrendous in adults. We should know in a week or so, I suppose.  So are any of you reading this wondering why we still have him in daycare? Sometimes I do.

Besides that, he's an expert crawler and cruiser. I love this kid.

This weekend is the last triathlon of the season in Wilmington. I will be racing age group again (I raced age group earlier this year at White Lake) since the NCTS is super strict about switching categories during the year.  Which I totally don't understand since they give the series $$$ to whoever has the highest points, not just the Open racers. And it's only my 2nd race with them so I can't even qualify for series awards. Anyways, I'm off my soapbox. It probably has to do with the administrative work involved in switching people around all the time. So yeah, going to have fun regardless and not get too annoyed about the crowds on the bike, hopefully. We've rented a house on Wrightsville with a bunch of friends and will be staying until Monday morning. I can't wait; it's going to be such a fun weekend.

Mom-in-law will be watching Logan for us. She'll have Logan overload by the end of the weekend, I'm sure!

Of shavers and pens

On vacation last month, I realized I had forgotten to pack razors. When I went to the store to buy some, I was being budget conscious and selected a razor I hadn't used before. Big mistake as it hacked my legs up but that's not what I wanted to talk about. While probably looking for some reading material in the bathroom, ahem, I read about the features of said razor (just focus on the last 2 bullet points):

Key Benefits:

•Fixed head and triple-blade technology that delivers a smooth, close shave

•Polymeric and chrome cover to ease shaving in sensitive areas

•Twin lubricating strip with Vitamin E provides great smoothness for a comfortable and safe shave

•Long ergonomic handle that allows a better handling for a comfortable shave

•Elegantly designed handles with flowers decorations (sic) for an enhanced and pleasant shaving experience

•2 pink colored handles to suit your mood


At the time I remember thinking, are you kidding me? Someone was REALLY stretching for those. {big eyeroll and headshake}

So I wasn't too surprised to see this in the news recently. Oh Bic, how I would love to listen in on your advertising/marketing meetings.

Bic Pens For Her