Adventures in Triathlons

Ha! Me in a triathlon! That is funny! Really funny...I don't even know how to swim in a straight line.

Devin signed up for the Shawnee Mission Park Triathlon that was this past Sunday. Being the dutiful, ever-supportive wife that I am, I decided to bring the girls to cheer him on. I haven't had the best luck doing this in the past. Either parking is too complicated (KC Marathon) or the girls get bored and tired and fussy (Jackon County Triathlon last year) or my timing is way off (always). Then there's that whole Marie has no sense of direction and can't read a map thing. Anyway, since I've been on the receiving end of this and know firsthand how amazing it feels to see your family cheering you on when you're running, I really wanted to go. I thought we'd go cheer him on for a bit, and then head to church to help in the nursery.

I'm so good. I pack the girls some breakfast for on the go. I get their outfits ready THE NIGHT BEFORE and even pack a spare outfit for each of them in case they want to put their feet in the lake and get too wet. I even got up early instead of pretending like we can all be out the door in 15 minutes, which is unfortunately the norm for me.

Mishap #1 Woke up to cat puke all over the carpet. Lovely.
Mishap #2: Realized in the car that Addison never went to the bathroom that morning. There are porta potties there, but trying to keep Ainsley from touching everything while keeping Addison from falling in the freakishly deep poop ravine. No way. Quick stop at the gas station.

I pull in to Shawnee Mission Park thinking "Yipppeeee! We've got plenty of time! And it's not that hot out! Yes!"

Then I see that we have a good mile to walk, downhill. That means the return trip will be uphill with my piece of crap double stroller. I hate my double stroller. The tray fell off a long time ago and it's bulky and heavy. But it carries two kids. Oh well. We've got plenty of time.

We get to a place were we can see the cyclists go by and start to wait. It was cute to see Addison and Ainsley clapping for all the other competitors. It was also cute to see the man waiting next to me for his wife to ride by, pulling his kids in a wagon, obviously a very proud husband. We're all happily waiting and cheering.

Then we see some flashes of lightning and some staff come running in to announce that they're calling it all off. The proud husband and I start yelling at them. He yells "but she trained for months for this thing!" I yell, in typical Dave Ramsey fashion "but my husband paid eighty bucks for this thing!!!" We get some kind of lecture of safety....bla bla bla....have to keep all the contestant safe...bla bla bla....

Anyway just then Devin came riding up. He was pretty disappointed, but Devin never really gets that upset about anything for very long.

Then the skies opened and it started to POUR! He rides away to get his stuff and I am left to push that blasted stroller up that friggin' hill in the pouring rain. Everyone else starts to cut through the grass, so I do the same. I had to make Addison get out and walk. She started to cry (Ainsley's already whimpering). I said "let's pretend we're dancing in the rain!" That doesn't work. Then I promise her hot chocolate from Starbucks. BINGO! I am trying my best to maintain a positive "isn't this so fun?!" kind of attitude, but it's not easy with my clothes completely drenched and stuck to my body in a most unappealing way and mascara dripping down my face, pushing that stupid stroller up the dang hill. At least I was getting some exercise. Since they stagger the starting times, you usually have people leaving these things at different times as well, but since it got called off and since it was pouring, every single person was trying to get out of there at the same time. From the same road. It was crazy.

I managed to get the girls changed into their dry clothes, convince Addison that Ovaltine at Grammy's house is even better than Starbucks because it will have marshmallows, and we headed to my parents' house so I could throw my sopping clothes in the dryer before going over to church.

So now Devin is gearing up for the Kansas City Marathon in October. He did the half last year and is wanting to do all 26.2 miles this year. I have no doubt that he'll do well and you can bet that we'll be there to cheer him on. Shenanigans and all.

I'M STILL HERE! I PROMISE!

Oh my goodness it has been such a long time since I've blogged. I have been SO BUSY these last few months. Where do I even begin?!

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to St. Louis with some of the coffee talk girls. It was probably one of the best trips I've ever had in my whole life. First off, I didn't have to take care of the kids, so even if we had taken a trip to Carthage, MO to see Civil War reenactments (I tried to think of one of the most boring places you could go) it would have been a blast. The whole time I kept saying "This is so fun!" or "How fun is this right now?!" and got some stares like "Uhh you don't get out much do you Marie..." I know they all agreed with me; I just like to tell everyone when I'm having fun (or not). We drank lots of wine, ate frozen yogurt for dinner one night, went to the movies, did everything spontaneously, and enjoyed being together. Oh and 4 of us got nose piercings!

The next day I drove down to Wichita with Em and Kelly and threw a surprise baby shower for Rach with her sister-in-law Katie. I told Donita to tell Rach that it was just going to be family and maybe some ladies from church. She showed up and saw us! I wish we could have been together longer, but it was so good to catch up and see her cute little pregnant bump before she and Brandon headed off to Florida.

Then, the next day after that we went to D.C. to see Devin's dad retire from the ARMY after nearly 40 years of service. It was amazing to see all the Rileys' friends and family that traveled from really far away to be there for such an important day. Old high school buddies, an 89 year old Uncle, his mom and siblings, all his kids and grandchildren, etc. etc. I can't imagine how wonderful it must have felt for him to accomplish something so huge and then see all the faces of your support systems through the years congratulating you. It is almost like a little glimpse of heaven. Heyyyy...kinda like the LOST season finale (which I loved by the way)!! I digress....

We arrived home and then had a good visit from Aunt Shel. She and my mom threw a cute princess party for Addison's 4th birthday. Devin and I bought Addison her first bike. When we wheeled it out Ainsley was as excited as Addison was, and Addison was nice enough to let Ainsley try it out first.

Aunt Shel made the cake and did a great job. The girls decorated princess crowns and played princess games and had lots of fun. While she was here, we also shopped for a bridesmaid dress for me and flower girl dresses for Darren and Amanda's wedding in Colorado which was coming up that next weekend. These next pictures were taken at the Kansas City Toy and Miniature Museum near the plaza. I love being with my mom and aunt.

A couple days later we took off for Buena Vista, Colorado to be in Darren and Amanda's wedding at Spring Canyon. My camera is a real piece, so I didn't take any pictures, but I am hoping to steal my sister in law's from facebook when she gets around to posting them...hint...hint...

Ainsley is almost 17 months old and is SO DIFFERENT from Addison! It just blows me away. She doesn't like any of her toys and would much rather play with Addison's stuff, she loves entertaining people, she's LOUD and silly, and gets into everything, and I see lots and lots and lots of time outs in her future. I also see a lot of laughs.

I'll post more about our Colorado trip and our crazy adventure home another time, but I am so happy to be home. This week I did nothing but read Breaking Dawn (you can go ahead and add me to the list of Twi-moms who let their house and kids go so they can do nothing but read Twilight books). It was shameful, really. Instead of feeding Ainsley cereal, I stuck her in a high chair with a bowl of dry cheerios and a cup of milk so she could feed herself. Addison stayed in her pajamas all day (I did too). The girls weren't complaing though. They had a blast running through the sprinkler in the backyard, although I will admit that Ainsley was stark naked (except for her crocs) while I read my book. I also went to the Eclipse midnight showing with some friends and had such a fun time.

Well that's enough blogging for one day! More to come...

Life, Life, Life

I received this cute wreath in the mail from Abbe yesterday. Isn't it pretty? She sent it because I shared our debt story on her blog a week or so ago. You can read it here if you want. I would highly recommend adding her blog to your list. She is such a gifted writer and always encourages me and inspires me. I know Abbe because Rachel and Amanda used to go to her for haircuts. She did Amanda's wedding hair.

The last couple of days haven't been so easy. My close friend's mom just passed away yesterday of Pancreatic Cancer. I haven't experienced a death in many years and it was just very difficult to watch my friend lose her mom. I was torn between gratefulness that my mom is perfectly healthy and agony because I love my friend so much and hated to see her endure something so painful. It just blows. She was one of the people I wrote that poem for.

The last few weeks have kept me busy writing a portion of a grant for the College of Southern Idaho. After I turned in all 36ish pages, I was told that the college doesn't have enough of a match to be a good candidate. Even though it was a technical issue and had nothing to do with what I turned in, I still only got half the amount of money that I had been expecting. It was such a bummer to find out that the schools that I had become so familiar with won't be getting the equipment to help them out. I was still grateful to have a nice chunk of cash to throw at our debt snowball....WHICH IS ALMOST FINISHED until a nice visit to Meineke today, in which they told me that I will be using half that money to pay for car repairs.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So it looks like it's still going to be awhile on this debt payoff. It's ok. I'm disappointed, but I'm not angry. I'm not going to be defeated. Today I am choosing joy. There are so many good things in my life, so like Amanda just did, I will go ahead and list them:

1. We had the money to pay for the car repair and didn't have to use our emergency fund
2. My mom is healthy and we see each other all the time. In fact, she's going to pick up my car-less self and take me to her place tonight.
3. Ainsley can say "baaa" when you ask her what a lamb says. Yes she may say that for all the other animals as well, but that's alright.
4. It's a beautiful day outside today, so walking home from the car place wasn't all that terrible. Addison got tired of walking, so she held Ainsley in her lap in the umbrella stroller.
5. They didn't squeal and fight sitting together in the umbrella stroller!
6. Addison can make herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
7. I found an adorable dress at Target for only $10 w/ cute shoes to match for $20 (Next post: ridding yourself of unnecessary guilt for buying said shoes)
8. Devin's work sent him to VA for business the same weekend his brother is graduating from Virginia Tech. He'll get to see his dad as well as see his brother graduate! And his company paid the airfare!


Thanks God for all the good things in my life, and give me the strength to choose joy. Please wrap Your arms around my sweet friend Alicia, and comfort her. Help me to be a good friend to her and never take the time I have with my mom(s) forgranted again. Tell her mom to tell my grandmas hi up there, and that Addison and Ainsley win in the "cutest grandkid" argument that they're having.

Mother's Day 5K

This was such a fun race. I have to say that I truly enjoyed participating in it. I was super nervous the night before, and right before the race. The unknown is always a scary thing, isn't it? There was also the coffee dilemma. Do I drink it for energy and risk having to....you know..... or not? I had some. It was fine. Phew!

Some of my other friends signed up as well, but I accidentally ran into Kelly in the parking lot, so we started out together. We may or may not have snickered at a cheesy middle aged lady doing warm up aerobics to iTunes in the starting line. Kelly, my amazing single-mom friend, deserves some major shoutouts. She trained for the 5k on her lunch break every day because that was the only time she had to exercise. Is that amazing or what?

Devin was really sweet. He dragged the girls out of bed at the crack of dawn to come and watch me run. It was really fun to see him at different times during the race, and it helped encourage me to keep going.

Finished the race in 32:39, 10:31 minute mile. I was very pleased with these results. In all my practicing, the fastest I was ever able to go was 11 minutes per mile. My ultimate goal was to finish the darn thing without stopping, and I was able to do that. It was truly a great feeling. We got really cute little shirts and I wore mine proudly to church, like a big dork. My ultimate plan was to stop at Starbucks immediately after and get a dark cherry mocha, but I opted for one at Panera instead. Blagh. Not the same.

Thanks for all your encouragement! Before I even started running I thought "oh 3 miles. That's easy!" Then I started and that thinking changed to "there's no way I'll ever be able to do that" considering I could only go for 1 minute without getting tired and having to stop. Running for 30-40 minutes just seemed impossible.

I guess with my grant writing endeavor and this 5k, 2010 was the year for taking on some new challenges. For someone who only likes to do things that she knows she can do really, really well, this was a big deal. Totally worth it.
























































This last one has nothing to do with running; it's just Addison being so cute. I guess Roxie and Huck needed to be cozier. Roxy even has a beanie baby.

The friend of one who is hurting

Some of my friends and family are hurting right now. This was on my mind as I was driving home tonight...

I wish you knew that when you're hurting, I'm hurting too.
I wish you knew that when I don't know what to say, it's because I see the pain in your eyes or hear it in your voice, and no words seem right. I end up making a joke because that's what I do---I make jokes or say inappropriate things. In some weird way, I hope it helps ease the pain for a moment.
I want you to feel joy, not because I want you to pretend you're not hurting, but because I don't want you to have to feel sad anymore.
I want you to know that when I bring you food or watch your kids or offer to do some other trivial thing, it's me saying "I want your pain to go away, and I'd do anything to make that happen, even for a second."
I want you to know that you're on my mind all the time. Whenever I hear a song play on the radio that is fitting, I want you to hear it, but making you a mixed cd seems sort of cheesy. Besides, what if you don't like the same songs I like? What if you think it's weird to hear "Wonderful World" by James Morrison? I mean, it's not exactly insspirational. It just seems fitting for what you're going through.
Sometimes I think life just sucks, but I know that God is good. I know that God can take away your pain and give you hope, but I don't want to tell you that because I don't want to get all churchy and flowery on you. I don't want to, in any way, diminish the hurt. I don't want to placate you with pat answers.
Sometimes hearing "God is good. All the time!" when you're knee deep in a pile of "you know" is flat out condescending.
At the same time, I know the sovereignty and goodness of God is truth. He is going to get you through this. He is going to be your rock. He is going to show you that if you will let Him.
It's crippling to know that I can't do anything to make things easier.
In some strange way, God is showing me that there is one thing that I can do that is more important than any other thing: I can pray for you.
I know, I know...it sounds trite. It's what we Christians say to each other, isn't it?
I want you to know that when I pray for you, my heart is pleading on your behalf that God will take some of the pain away; to give you some hope, even if it just means getting through the day.
I hope you know that.
In the meantime, I'm still here. I'm here if you want to talk about it. I'm here if you want to talk about something else--anything else. Lord knows I watch enough television. We can talk about that.
But in the silences that come in between talking about those other things, I hope you feel how much I love you. And I'm here through this whole journey.

Love,
Marie

P.S. As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
You will go out in joey
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord's renown,
for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed.
Isaiah 55:8-13

Cooking

Some of you are really into cooking. You love trying new, complicated recipes, spending hours in the kitchen and even plate the food with garnishes and stuff. You might even go as far as to call yourself a "foodie." I like cooking dinner for my family, and I am enjoying teaching Addison how to cook. I even think I do a halfway decent job, but I definitely wouldn't consider it a hobby of mine. Maybe it's because I have so much going on in my life right now, but there are times (nightly) where I just dread going in that kitchen to make dinner. It doesn't help that evening time is usually death hour in this household, and hearing Addison say "What are we having mom? I don't like that! I don't want that!" before she's even tasted it certainly doesn't help. Then there's Ainsley, and the endless task of keeping her out of the pantry. or the litterbox. or the toilet, or trying to get in and out of the fridge before she can get her grubby little fingers around the salad dressings. All that to say cooking is not my most favorite thing right now.

Having said that, the thing that makes cooking worth it, besides hearing Addison say "I LOVE THIS DINNER, MOM!", is thinking of all of you guys when I'm looking through my recipe book, getting ready to make something you posted, emailed, or made for me when we were together. Whenever I make spice pancakes, I think of Brenda. Whenever I make white chili I think of Roz, chicken divan casserole aka "heaven in a 9x13", I think of my mom. We've been eating those sweet potato fries for years, but Em changed my whole world when she posted a recipe for them with coriander. Tonight for dinner I made Chicken Succotash and it made me think of Keri. I could go on...and on...and on.

So next time you post a recipe, thinking no one really cares, know that I might be trying it out and thinking of you and appreciating having you in my life while I do, even if I accidentally burn it to a crisp, or in the case of Amanda's peasant bread, leave it raw on the inside. ;)

Poor Jamie

I watched Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution last night. It was a great show. You can google it if you want more info about what the show's about, but his basic idea was to change what public school students in West Virginia are being fed for breakfast and lunch and make it HEALTHY!

The students were served pizza and chocolate or strawberry milk for BREAKFAST! Then, for lunch, they had chicken nuggets, some fruit cocktail, more flavored milk, some bread and some fake mashed potatoes. It was all frozen, pre-cooked, loaded with chemicals and preservatives, and oils and sugars.

Jamie only had three days to prepare his own meals. On the first day the kids were to choose between what he prepared (a marinated roasted chicken leg, salad, and brown rice) and the frozen pizza option that had been served before. Part of his success was measured by if the kids liked the food or not.

As much as we all hoped the kids would salivate for that roasted chicken leg and salad, SURPRISE! they picked the pizza.

"Hey Addison would you rather have some steamed asparagus or some chicken nuggets from McDonalds?"

DUH!

This stuff takes time. Kids have to get used to eating healthy. It's not going to happen in three days. These kids are accustomed to only eating foods jam packed with fats and sugars. Their little bodies probably don't even know what to do with a fresh vegetable. You should have seen how upset they were when he only gave them white milk to drink.

This show is pretty fascinating. I'm intrigued!