No Bike Yet

Ironically, when I put the title as No Bike Yet I originally meant that we haven't bought Mr. Darcy a bike yet and then I realized... I haven't gotten to ride my bike yet either.

Mr. Darcy had his 1st TNT training ride on Saturday morning.  He did all 20 miles on his hybrid and said the group averaged about 13 mph, but that at one point they got up to 18 mph on a downhill.  Then he laughed, and said that he felt like he could go faster but that the coach seemed to want to keep everyone together.  To be honest, I was more worried about what his 'nads were feeling like since it looked like he was wearing basketball shorts.  I asked him how he felt in general hoping he'd get the drift, right as he sat down on the chair and I saw peeking out from under the basketball shorts... tri shorts.  The only pair of tri shorts he owns.  And I breathed a sigh of relief as he told me he was tired but felt pretty good.

So after a shower and getting the lilliputians ready, we set off on a quest for a bike.  We got to my LBS (Advanced Cycles) and Mr. Darcy and the shop owner chatted about bikes in our price range and their features.  I had wanted to be in on the conversation but I had to keep the ladies busy.  They found a children's bike that they loved and sat on and pretended to ride (it had training wheels), then they found the stools to spin on, and then Angelfish (I have no idea how she does this, but she does it every time) headed straight for the most expensive bike in the store.  $11K.  I told her she had to back away from the bike because with the state of the stock market I wasn't sure if her college fund could even cover the cost of the bike.  Coach was in the store after a bike ride with her tri team and she thought that was pretty funny.  Coach has 25 people on the TNT tri team this season, which is AWESOME!  Of course, they had 3 bike crashes and 2 flats on their ride so it sounds like she has her hands full too. 

Then we went to Orange Cycle to give them another try because we have heard people say good things about them.  I have to say that knowing about bikes now makes me even more skeptical.  Orange Cycle told Mr. Darcy (while I was lurking in the background with the girls who were sitting in the recumbent bikes on display and pretending they were sunken ships and submarines) that they recommended bikes that were $1500... specialized part carbon and part aluminum with 105 shifters or all carbon with tiagra shifters.  The guy was pushing the all carbon because he said it would be better for long rides because it was more flexible.  I just couldn't get past the notion of an all carbon bike with tiagra shifters.  I mean yes, I get that you can upgrade that stuff, but I just can understand why you would do it to start with lower grade shifters.  But then, I'm kind of that if you're going for the best why sully it up; but if you're in a certain price point get the best of everything within the price point. I told Mr. Darcy that I thought he should get more of a bike like my road bike...part aluminum and part carbon with better shifters and wheel cassette.  Mr. Darcy says he can tell the difference between the Sora shifters and the Tiagra shifters but can't tell the difference between the Tiagra and the 105's.  I find this shocking because, well, I can tell the difference.  BUT, I've also been riding a bit more than Mr. Darcy.  They did have a very sexy looking Cannondale tri, but it was more than twice what we were looking for and the wrong type of bike... On top of it they didn't have Mr. Darcy's size in either of the bikes and seemed only to want to order the size if we were already going to buy the bike.  But how do you test the bike if you can't ride the right size?  Mr. Darcy said that he didn't really like the look of the bikes at Orange Cycle, and I have to say that other than the Cannondale that I liked below, they weren't that sexy.

So then we hit David's Cycling World... the girls fell asleep in the car so I sat with them while Mr. Darcy checked out the Treks.  He got to ride 3 on a trainer since it was raining on and off the entire time.  He said the guy was really nice and took a lot of time to explain how the levels of things went for quality (Sora all the way up to Dura Ace), and really Mr. Darcy's only complaint was about the bike seat.  But he thinks he likes the Fuji better... plus the LBS said that they would let him rent it for a day to test it out for $30.  That way Mr. Darcy can do 20 miles on it and see if he likes it.  Mr. Darcy is contemplating the one below. The next Model up has SRAM Rival... anyone know much about it? One of the guys at the LBS said that it's better than Shimano 105, but not as good as Shimano Ultegra but that it's nice because the wires are inside...

The bike Mr. Darcy is considering above...

The interesting thing I noticed in all of the bike shops is that the prices are higher for the same components that I got on my bike 2 years ago.  I paid about $1200 for a partial carbon, mostly alumnium frame, ultegra shifters, and a good gear cassette on the back.  Now it's around $1200 in most shops for tiagra shifters on the same sort of frame.  But I guess it's a product of the economy.  My LBS is offering a pretty good deal on essentially the bike I have but with Tiagra shifters that's a good bit lower than what I stated, but I'm tempted to ask them how much it would be to get them to upgrade to at least 105's.

We have one more shop to check out Felt bikes and hopefully will get to it today... but we're also hitting the splash pad today.  I'll keep you in posted!

It's Friday!

First, thank you all for your comments to yesterday's post.  I really appreciate them! I realize that I am doing the best that I can, and really there is nothing more than you can do than your best.  So I'm sticking to my combo zone-paleo eating, and while this week's workouts have not been up to par with what I normally I have told Mr. Darcy that no matter what time he drags himself out of bed, I will from now on be leaving for my workouts no later than 7:15 am each morning.  I am not going to keep slacking on my workouts because he stays up too late playing Xbox to get up on time and thus get out of the house in time for me to get my workouts in.  I've let it go for a couple of weeks now, but now I am putting my foot down.

Today they didn't leave until 7:45 on Mr. Darcy's car clock which turned out to be 7:50 am on the house clock.  That meant that despite being all decked out in my cycling clothes and wanting to jump on the bike, I was going to have to skip the bike and do either a quick run or a yoga video.  And since for whatever reason I woke up itchy all over (not sure if there was something in the wine or the new cheeses I tried last night), I decided not to take a chance on the run because I have food dependant exercise induced anaphylaxia.... (yet another wild and crazy thing) which means if I've eaten a food that I'm allergic too and then exercise within 24 hours of eating it, when I stop exercising (not during thank goodness, but as soon as you stop) I go into anaphylactic shock.  The only thing new in my day yesterday was the cheeses and the wines.  I've never been allergic to either before, but the overall body itching (including between fingers and toes) may be a hint that I shouldn't push things.  I don't like visits to the ER, especially since if my reaction started I would probably have to run there because while driving I would potentially pass out and die, and take others out with me.  And since I haven't had a reaction in a very long time (I don't eat onions or shrimp because they are my known reactors and I rarely eat shellfish as a just in case), I don't have an epi-pen because my last one expired and I don't have an allergist here to get a new one.  I know I need to get one just in case.

But then I got a call from Mr. Darcy telling me that he invited 2 friends to go with us to Disney for the Girls' Birthday.  I am really excited about it because it is Holland (Angelfish's almost husband it would seem) and Connor, who the girls love and their parents (and Holland's sister who is super cute) who Mr. Darcy and I really enjoy talking to.  They're able to go!  So I called Disney right away and asked if they could expand our lunch reservation at the Crystal Palace from 4 adults and 2 children, to 8 adults and 5 children.  Amazingly, they were able to do it.  AND the really nice Disney guy told me that somewhere the original reservation was done wrong and it didn't show the girls' birthday (or that they were children), so he set it up so that Pooh and his friends will do a birthday parade for the girls!  He also I am so stinking excited about how happy this will make them that I almost cried.  But that took up the time I had to do yoga.

So my morning isn't going quite as planned.  But that's how it goes.  My cousin is supposed to be arriving at some point today, but when he's arriving and how long he and his wife are staying appears to be a mystery at this point in time.  Let's hope it's not while I'm at lunch with my Junior League Committee or during the performance review I'm doing for my paralegal this afternoon! Mr. Darcy has agreed that he needs to go bike shopping this weekend, so I'll be ogling bikes at some point this weekend too.  And if we can find a sitter, we will go to dinner with our friends M&C at a Spanish tapas restaurant Saturday night.  They just got back from Spain and still have a hankering for the food. : )  We may have a playdate with Holland's family this weekend too. But best of all, as the little ladies put it "we're staying all together" this weekend!

Enjoy the 3 Day weekend.  I'm still plotting to get on my bike somehow!!

Random Thoughts

My Mind is a little all over the place today, so I did some yoga after my pushups and situps that I decided to wait to do until today so I could at least stick with the Tuesday, THursday, Saturday pattern.  Of course, I'm contemplating for this week only to do THursday, Saturday, Sunday to get back on track since I missed doing it on Tuesday.

Here are my random thoughts:
1. The differences between men and women can be annoying.  For example, I argue that love is blind meaning that you can be just as attracted to someone you're in love with whether they need to lose 20 pounds or not.  Mr. Darcy argues that your love for them makes you attracted to them but that you are more attracted to them when they have lost the 20 pounds.  This frustrates me to no end, and quite frankly it makes me insecure about my physical appearance since I fall into the category of those who need to lose 20 pounds and despite my healthy eating and working out my health issues seem to preclude my losing 20 pounds.

2. I hate feeling powerless.  As in the above, it's as though Mr. Darcy has the power to make me feel better about myself by saying he doesn't think I need to lose 20 pounds.  But he won't say it because that would be "a lie."  And therefore, I internalize it and make it all my fault even though I know I am doing everything I can.  I'm working on trying to take the power back somehow. This is the only area of my life at this point that I feel insecure about and the only area where I don't feel like I have all the power. I've never been an insecure person until now.  I always thought by 35 I would be like a duck and everything would just roll off my back.  I turn 35 at the end of August, so I'll be working on it.

3. The best love is that of your children.  It's the only truly unconditional love there is, in my opinion.  No matter what you look like, job you have, etc. etc. they still love you because you're their Mommy.

4. Your true girlfriends in this life are better than family - they're the family you choose.  I'm lucky to have a few of these who love me and check in on me.  I love them more than the moon and back!

5. It's a blue sky day that has me wanting to ride my bike but at the same time I just want to do yoga to de-stress.  I will get on the bike tomorrow.  I'm determined... even if my closed road is no longer closed.

6. I never thought I would say this, but I think I love pushups.  They're still hard for me but I feel so strong afterwards.  Crunches I still could care less about.  But then I've always been able to do crunches.  In middle school I set the school record for situps when we did the President's Fitness Challenge (yep, shows my age for those of you who remember what it was).  It took until I was graduating from high school for some little whipper snapper to break it.  (My school was a magnet school combo from elementary through high school, so I still saw the PE teachers from middle school and they told me.) 

7. I played basketball, ran track, and played tennis on the 8th grade team.  I think I was born to name my bikes because I started back in the day by naming my basketball sneakers (made by Mac Gregor) - Mac and Greg.  Luckily, I'm a bit more creative these days.

8. Mr. Darcy still hasn't gotten on his bike and has a 20 mile bike ride this Saturday with the Team.  He'll be doing it on his hybrid because he also hasn't gone shopping despite my giving him a list of what to look for in a bike and gear he needs for the bike... and him admitting he doesn't understand half of what I'm talking about.

9. Before today I never really believed in the third eye concept, but after today's Third Eye Sequence I do.  I swear I can feel it on my forehead... and I am in a much more peaceful and relaxed state of mind now that I've actually done my yoga this morning. (1-8 were before yoga)

10. Forgiveness is a funny thing.  You can forgive an action of another and yet still have pain from it that can cause you to be angry again with a trigger that reminds you of the pain.  Perhaps full forgiveness is not possible  until the pain is fully alleviated. 

11. The bad thing about doing both the pushup challenge and the sit up challenge at the same time is that you can confuse your numbers.  Like today, when I thought the minumum max allowed for pushups was 48 and I made sure I did 50 (while falling to the ground as I hit 51).  Turns out the minimum max was 40 for pushups.  48 for situps!  Now I know I can do 50 pushups after several sets of them!

12. I apologize if my thoughts today are not only random but also somewhat unhappy.  Sometimes the roads of life are not always paved with happiness, but as someone said recently it's not what happens to you, it is how you deal with it. 

13. Life is a journey, a sometimes bumpy road.  But as long as you avoid getting hit by a car, you can keep on cycling!

Until tomorrow with hopefully happier thoughts...

Stomach Issues, A Morning Run, and Birthday Wishes

Stomach Issues
I didn't end up working out yesterday.  My stomach was still not in its happy place, I felt completely exhausted, and it was really, really hard to turn down taking my girls to daycare (despite being dressed for a run) when they were hugging on me and asking me to take them to school instead of Daddy.  I hoped that by lunch time my stomach would be happier.  It was better but it wasn't until about 4 pm that I started feeling more myself.  And then I had to head out to the last Junior League General meeting  for the "year."  We officially start up again at the end of August, although I will be working on planning and such for my committee over the summer.

When I got home from the meeting, the girls were still awake in their room and they started chanting "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" So I went in there chanting "spanking!" and then said "JUST JOKING!"  I think Mr. Darcy and I may have been the only ones who thought that was funny.  But they loved on me and told me that they missed me so very much and loved me and then told me all about their evening at the pizza place where it was "Kids Night."  They had their faces painted, made jewelry out of beads, got a bracelet made out of balloons, and of course ate pizza.  It is definitely nice to feel loved...

A Morning Run
This morning after the chillin's and Mr. Darcy left for school and work, I headed out for a run.  My intestines are still a little questionable, but I really just needed to run.  I told myself that I'd only do 3 miles so I wouldn't go too far from the house, but really the entire time I knew I was going to run 4 miles.  I did 5/1s and told myself that I was just going to take it easy.  Time did not matter today, but going the distance did.  So I ran a nice easy pace and did my 1 min walks a little slower than normal.  I walked slower than usual because 1) I had this continuously feeling I had to go to the bathroom so I was doing a "do I think I'm going to poop" scan each time; and 2) there were no bathrooms around unless I cut the run short or made it to the CVS so I used it to contemplate possible routes to the bathroom.

But I felt good.  I was running at a pace that felt comfortable, even if it was already 75 degrees and humid at 7:30 this morning.  I got to the point where I could cut it short to go home for the bathroom, and decided to go on.  I made it to the turn for the 3 mile route and told myself that really the 4 mile route was better.  I could always stop at the end of mile 3 to use the bathroom at the CVS.  I hit the corner with CVS and told myself that I could make it home. I made it home and I felt like I could have run farther at the end, although my gut was happy that it was near a bathroom "just in case."  The just in case came about 5 minutes later too.

All in all, it was a really nice run.  After clearing out the early morning allergy crud, my lungs felt pretty good and my legs felt pretty strong the entire time.  Running 5 minutes was easy enough and a few times I overran by several seconds and had to immediately walk.  I was dripping with sweat, even up to about 1/2 an hour after the run was over.  The heat has definitely been turned on for the summer. I wasn't a speed demon, but then I wasn't trying to be either.  46:42, an 11:40 pace.  Not bad!

I still have to do my pushups and situps for the challenges. I'm a bit behind on them this week and can't decide if I should skip one day or just be "off" on days vs. weeks.  I'll figure it out and get that done before the day is over.  And I'll be taking the liliputians to gymnastics today, which should be good.

Birthday Wishes
As promised... Monday I sat down with the girls and we made their Birthday Wish Lists. I told them that they might not get everything on their lists and that they might get things that weren't on their lists, but that this was so if people wanted to know what they might like they would have some ideas. I've given you the full lists so you could get a good laugh in too.


LADYBUG: The BIG princess birthday cake at the grocery store with all the princesses (not getting this it's $60! but I got a cool cake kit to make one that she and Amanda will like and I'm also going to make them individual cupcakes as their individual "cake"); a girl superhero; princess figurines with dresses; a princess book with a lot of princess stories in it; a princess car; a pink bear; new crayons; pink flowers; new paper; tape; Cinderella movie; a fancy dress up dress so I can dress like Cinderella when she's going to a party; new toy cookies; a paper heart; a candle to blow out; a birthday party at the beach with my family and to go to Disney (she doesn't know it yet but this is exactly what we're doing!); ice cream; candy; pink earrings, necklace and bracelet; a new gymnastics leotard that has the princesses on it; and a figurine or doll of Merriweather (the blue fairy from Sleeping Beauty); and fairy "stuff"

ANGELFISH: a birthday cake, ice cream, chicken nuggets and applesauce to eat; a dump truck; a super hero girl; a book; a race car; new crayons, paper and tape; pink, orange, yellow, purple and green flowers; a fancy dress up dress so I can dress up like Sleeping Beauty going to a party; a candle with fire so I can blow the fire out; to rest on my birthday (I laughed at this one... like we put her to work the other days of the year); to see Disney and go to the beach (I love that we're making birthday wishes come true!), candy, a necklace, bracelet and earrings; a new pink leotard for gymnastics; and "fairy stuff"

When I asked them if they could think of anything else, Ladybug said "I'll have to get back to you, Mommy."  Angelfish told me, "Nope. That's it.  Oh and I'll take anything that Ladybug wants too, but not hers one of the same thing that's mine, all mine."  They make me smile : )

A Lovely Weekend

Here it is, Monday evening and I am finally getting a chance to write about the weekend, which all in all was very lovely.  I always have a wonderful time with my girls, and this weekend was no exception... even if it didn't quite end in a way that we had expected.

Friday afternoon, Adopted Little Sister arrived, used the potty and then we headed to the airport to pick up Little Sister.  She only had to wait about 10 minutes for us... her flight actually arrived early.  After hugs and piling the additional luggage into the car, we headed off toward Hutchinson Island.  Talking and laughing and all sorts of fun, we finally arrived at our destination.  I was proud of myself for resisting the Chik-fil-a stop and eating my Zone Bar and drinking a water instead.  That may very well have been the last of my good eating for the weekend.  There is one meal we're all quite convinced that we ate our full days worth of calories at ... and it was dinner.  But I jump ahead.

The hotel was a Courtyard Marriott right on the beach.  Literally.  We had an ocean view room that had a door that opened and no screen so you could see, hear and almost feel the ocean from our room.  Absolutely gorgeous.  And as I said to the ladies, I am not the type to spit (other than during a run, but that's another story) but if I had been I could have probably hit the beach from our window.  It was perfect.

We got ready for dinner and headed down stairs.  Waited for 1 hour for our cab to actually arrive.  The story was that there was an accident somewhere that blocked all lanes of traffic.  Either way we had fun people watching in the lobby and chatting it up.  Hutchinson Island/Jensen Beach is a very small town, with not a lot of options in way of food, but it was perfect for us all the same.  Completely laid back and wonderful. 

We ended up at Crawdaddy's.  At first we weren't quite sure of it, but we had excellent food even though none of us are what you would call cajun food fans.  Great drinks too.  3 pomegrante martinis later, scallops in lobster sauce and wrapped in bacon, some bread, and a piece of Key Lime Pie later, I was quite inebriated and having a great time.  Adopted Little Sister had steak and potatoes along with 4 glasses of wine.  Little sister had a chicken pasta dish of some sort and a strawberry daquiri and yet she seemed to be as intoxicated as the rest of us.  The band they had was quite amusing to us because the singing was not the greatest thing I've ever heard (I hate to say it but I may have been able to do better) and the singer's body gyrations or dancing reminded us of something you'd see in a movie at an adult entertainment establishment, and evidently she didn't appreciate our laughter when she looked straight through the window at us and mouthed "I'm Michael Jackson, Bitches" which unfortunately caused us to laugh all the harder (several drinks will do that to normally nice mannered ladies like ourselves) but also told us we should pay and head out.  Perhaps the best part of the evening was when Little Sister was in the elevator with us returning from dinner (along with one other guy who stopped on a different floor laughing his keister off at us) and she points to the words "No Fumar" and announces that it isn't Spanish because that can't be No in Spanish and I tell her... "actually, no means no even in Spanish."  We even laughed about that while sober the rest of the weekend.  Of course, we had eaten SOOO much at dinner that we all felt like we were going to explode and venture to guess that our calorie content for the meal was ridiculous, if not ludicrous.

The next morning we were moving slower than usual.  I woke up at 7 am and thought I really should go for a run.  I even sat up and then thought to myself, oh hell with it and fell back on the bed and crashed until 9 am.  We finally hit breakfast about 10:30 or so.  I had an egg white omlet with spinach, tomato, peppers and cheese, a cup of coffee (I needed it for my poor brain - I can't remember the last time I had 3 glasses of anything stronger than water, let alone martinis.), and an orange.  It was awesome.  Then we got set up on the beach and talked and sunbathed (after slathering ourselves and re-applying with 70+).  At one point it was already 12:30 and Adopted Little Sister said she was going for water... and returned with Mango Margaritas (frozen) in addition to water for us all.  All I have to say is yum.  About an hour later and we were ready for lunch... a caesar salad with grilled chicken breast and I avoided almost all of the crutons.  Then we hit the pool and the hot tub, and then headed up for a nap.  I ended up reading for the 2 hours the girls slept - The Girl that Played with Fire is just too hard to put down.  Then it was off to dinner at Conchy Joe's.

I think Conchy Joe's may be overrated based on all the reviews etc that we saw, but it was fine.  I had 2 rum runners that tasted like they had no alcohol in them... until I stood up and discovered otherwise.  Another piece of key lime pie that was supposedly their secret recipe from back in the 60's when they first opened.  Not the greatest either.  I'm a Key Lime Pie coinneseur and it didn't do it for me.  I had a nice piece of fried haddock and good sweet potato fries, but again nothing to get overly excited about.  But we did enjoy the reggae band and the overall atmosphere of casual fish house right on the water.

Sunday we slept until about 9 am again, packed up and headed on our way.  We stopped at a place called "Captain Jacks" in Ft. Pierce for a noontime breakfast, which was awesome.  Pancakes, scrambled eggs, a piece of ham, and potato fries (but I didn't really eat the potato fries and I ate only half of the pancakes).  We all agreed it was exactly what we needed.  Then a stop at the Vero Beach outlets.  On the way to the outlets, Mr. Darcy called for advice.  Angelfish had a rash that was originally on her back the night before and now had started spreading.  Without hesitation, I told him to take her to the urgent care clinic.  So I was now worried about my little lady and I started calling him on the hour and was having to leave voice messages. At the outlets, I found 2 awesome beach hats with the wide floppy brim, but refused to pay $30.  I am cheap, I guess, but $30 for a hat is silly to me.  I was annoyed at Banana Republic because there was a sign placed to insinuate the hat was 40% off and then it wasn't.  I refused to buy it without a discount and they refused to give me the discount.  So none of my money left my hands there.

I called Mr. Darcy again and then he called me a bit later.  Turns out it was a delayed allergic reaction to the amoxicilin.  So Angelfish was now on a steroid to help rid herself of the now all over her body rash.  Mr. Darcy strongly assured me she was perfectly fine and there was no need to rush home.  I told him we were leaving the outlets and on our way back to Orlando, but I wasn't sure when we'd get home because we hadn't really decided what we were doing next.  We got to our neighborhood far faster than I expected we would and we were deliberating whether we wanted to try to go to a movie or not when Mr. Darcy called and started asking veiled questions.  I couldn't tell if he was trying to tell me that I needed to come home, that he wanted me to do something, or what, so I asked him what was it taht he needed.  Evidently that was the wrong answer because he started yelling at me about how all he wanted to know was when I was coming home because the house was a complete wreck (despite my cleaning it before I left) and he needed time to clean.  He really lost it when I told him that I was on the main feeder road to our street (but I found out later he thought that I had passed right by the clinic where he was with Angelfish and I hadn't been that way at all).  So right then and there I decided to go to the movies with the girls.  He seemed not to want us to go to the house and again told me that other than having a rash, Angelfish was completely her usual self.

We saw "Letters to Juliet" which I thoroughly enjoyed.  I'm a hopeless romantic, and although the end of the movie was cheesier than the rest of the movie had been and a little over the top for me, I really loved it.  Then we had dinner at our local Papa Gio's restaurant (and I called Mr. Darcy to see if I wanted to bring home dinner for him, which he declined).  The food was great and we had a blast talking and laughing.

Then we got home and Mr. Darcy was in quite the mood.  I told him that we had hoped to watch a movie that Adopted Little Sister had brought with her (and that she had been wanting us to see all weekend), and he said, "Sorry."  At first I thought he was joking, but no.  It turned out that he insisted that if we wanted to see the movie that we would have to watch it in our bedroom because he wanted to play XBox with his father and brother.  I was a bit mortified as these were guests in our home and here he was not only being a bit rude to me in his response but he was rude to my friends in making them sit in our bedroom and watch while laying on our bed.  He says that I had the whole weekend and had gotten to see a movie already so he did nothing wrong, but I completely beg to differ.  But, lesson learned.  We won't come home early from girls' weekend and will end our weekends at the hotel or leaving points for home in the future.  Little Sister told us that her arm was hurting, but we didn't think much of it because she has carpal tunnel and had kind of wrenched her suitcase out of the car earlier.

About 30 minutes into the movie, Little Sister tells us that her arm is still hurting and is now going numb.  She calls her Mom who is a nurse and evidently Mom thought she might be having a stroke or a heart attack.  I made her roll her tongue (it's a tell tale sign of stroke) and she was fine.  Her color was good, but now she was panicking a bit and started having shortness of breath.  In the car we went - 1st to the Urgent Care, which closes at 5 pm on Sunday... which makes me wonder how urgent of an urgent care place is it... and then to the ER.  5 Hours, a chest x-ray, blood work to test for blood clot indicators, a CT scan (because one indicator was slightly elevated and she had just been on a plane a few days before and was about to get on another one), and a lot of waiting later... diagnosis: carpal tunnel and anxiety.

So at 4:30 am, we finally fell into bed.  I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted.  Little Sister is all apologies to which we keep telling her there is nothing to apologize for because we've always said we'd take care of each other as we got older (we've even joked about living together after our husbands have died off)... even if we don't want to admit that we are technically falling into the "older" category for medical issues like heart attack despite feeling like we're not old at all.

At 5:30 am, I woke and took my thyroid medicine.  About 10 minutes later I felt sick. Tingly and nauseas.  And so it was that I vomited.  Alot.  And had other gastrointestinal issues.  And woke Mr. Darcy and told him that he was going to have to stay home for part of the morning because I just couldn't be up at 7 pm with the girls (Angelfish had to stay home to make sure the rash was going away with the medicine today).  By noon I was feeling better at least  (and eating more on the Zone again).  So off he went to work.

Adopted Little Sister and Little Sister left around 10:30, so they got to play with the little ladies a bit.  Our girls love their "Aunties" and Angelfish even made artwork them.  Lots of hugs and kisses later, it was just Angelfish and Ladybug and I.  We had some lunch, took a nap, did some puzzles and artwork, did their Birthday Lists (I'll share those with you tomorrow), had dinner and watched "Kung Fu Panda."  Then it was bedtime and after stories, songs and prayers, the day is done.  Mr. Darcy still is at work.  He has to go to Richmond on Wednesday and Thursday for work, and I have Junior League tomorrow evening.  So it will be a bit of a week without seeing each other.  Thank goodness for the long weekend during which we may have visitors in the form of my Cousin Allen and his new wife.  I hope they take us up on staying with us, but at the very least we will see them for a bit at some point which will be nice.

Tomorrow I will either go for a run, jump on the bike, or swim.  I haven't quite decided.  In part because I am hoping to avoid a repeat of this morning and in part because I've been too busy and too tired to think about it today.

All in all though, it's been a nice long weekend.  I'm glad to say I'll have a 3 day weekend this weekend too.  Let's hope Mr. Darcy gets on his bike (hybrid still at the moment, but better than nothing) before Saturday's TNT practice.  He didn't get on the bike last week (or this weekend, but then that was probably because I was out of town), and with his traveling this week I'll be thrilled if he gets on a stationary bike at the very least. Hopefully we'll get to do some bike shopping this weekend for fit, and then I'll hunt ebay, craigslist, and the other wonderful websites people have suggested.  No rest for the wicked, as they say. : )

The Morning Swim

Mr. Darcy gave me a wonderful surprise last night.  He came home with a pizza (and yes, I let myself succumb to it's non-paleo, non-zone goodness... resisting cake is one thing. pizza another all together) and told me that he doesn't have to go to Boca tomorrow after all.  YAY!  Of course, he has to see the dentist because either part of his tooth or part of a filling came out while flossing (I'm really hoping it's part of a filling).  But he's not in pain, so I figure it's a win situation all the same.

So we had pizza, watched "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," "Little Einsteins" and "Word World" (the girls learned how to spell duck and ball last night... it remains to be seen if they'll remember in the next few days though), got the Little Ladies into bed, and finished up putting the new bedding and curtains in the guest bedroom and did some straightening.  Mr. Darcy still isn't sure about the brown or the curtains we have in the living room, but for the weekend they'll do (and he read my blog and said I was funny complaining about painting with him).  He seems to be getting used to the brown and thinks that maybe its the cream color that we painted the side walls (which I had tried to dissuade him from).  I am fearful this will turn into painting the side walls, him still not liking the brown and then we paint a different color.  But Mr. Darcy is right about one thing, when we go through all of these painting forays we tend to end up with something that looks extremely good in the end.  It's just the process of it all that exhausts me!

The best part about Mr. Darcy not going to Boca was that I got to do my 2,000m swim.  Whoo hoo!  It was a swim that was to be done "however I wanted."  So I did a 200 for warm up, a 200, 600, 800, and then a 200 cool down.  I just focused on my form and enjoyed the swim.  I didn't worry about how long it took me to do, or negative splitting, or any of the usual worries.  Just a nice, relaxing swim. The sloshing of the water in my ears, realizing my triceps are a little sore but only while I swim and that my abs are tight too (thank you push up and sit up challenges) and that it feels good.  A very nice swim. 

Unfortunately, I discovered in the locker room that I  lost one of my earrings.  Yes, I realize I probably shouldn't have been swimming with earrings on to begin with.  But I pretty much have never taken these earrings out (except on occasion to wear another pair), since Mr. Darcy gave them to me as a surprise on New Years Eve about 7 years ago.  I want to kick myself in the head about it right about now because they weren't inexpensive earrings and I'm certain that I will not be getting a replacement pair anytime soon.  Diamonds don't grow on trees.  I have one lone pearl earring too.  And lucky me, I'm allergic to metals other than gold for earring posts.  I can wear sterling silver for the day, but not more than 1 or 2 days in a row or my ears start to itch.  So now, I am an earring free zone. Sigh.  I really like earrings.  Deep down I'm a girlie girl at heart.  I just don't let myself buy things because the kids, the house, and my triathlon addiction seem to be expensive enough.  So I will be bare eared until further notice.  Luckily my hair is long enough that people probably never realized I was wearing earrings anyway.

As for girls weekend, I am all nice and packed.  I talked to both Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister yesterday, and we all can't wait for a fun weekend.  Now to count down the minutes until Adopted Little Sister arrives so we can get Little Sister from the airport!

Run, TriMommy, Run!

I realized after seeing all of your comments yesterday that I forgot to say we're looking for a bike in the $1000 range.  The LBS has my same road bike in that range, but since Mr. Darcy is built differently from me I wanted to find him several bikes to try out.  I'm a firm believer in a test ride, test ride, test ride approach to bike purchases.  I know I had a Felt I really liked but that somewhere it didn't 100% feel right (although it felt a ton better than the others) and then I tried my Fuji and it was like I was one with the bike.  Plus, since his keister will be on the bike for training and then the 100 miles itself, I figure the best bike fit with the best bike components we can afford is the way to go.

Gymnastics was great last night.  The girls were well behaved and they did so great with all their tumbles, jumps, balance beams, etc. And they had a blast!  Angelfish had to have her attention redirected a few times because she was watching the older kids do routines, but who could blame her?  Afterwards, Ladybug asked if we could go to dinner at "a restaurant because I am STARVING!"  I took them to our neighborhood Italian place and passed by the group that was going to ride in memory of cyclists hit by cars.  I wish I could have ridden in it, but Mommy duties were on tap!  Of course, they ate a lot of bread and only a few bites of their meals.  Ladybug finally pushed her plate across the table and said "Can I eat my macanoni (that's how she says it) and cheese for breakfast?"  So we boxed everything up.  I, on the other hand, ate a salad, veggies, and chicken.  Go me!

Mr. Darcy finished up our painting project last night while I straightened a bit.  He thinks he wants to change the colors.  He says the brown is too brown.  I should have known not to go with a saturated color with him... this is the same man that sees a green shirt and tells me its "too green."  We're leaving the color for the weekend, but I have a feeling that we will be back in Lowe's looking at paint samples again in the very near future.  Mr. Darcy claims to "like the idea of brown" but whether that means brown in practice is out, remains to be seen.  We have this problem often.  We had a 2 story foyer in Atlanta that took 3 paintings to finally satisfy both of us.  And the paint color was a mix of the 2 previous colors that we made up ourselves as a compromise. Painting houses with Mr. Darcy makes me a little crazy.

This morning the girls were in the same bed when I woke them up, which means one thing.  They were up really late playing in their room. Ladybug kept her underpants dry thank goodness.  The poor thing is definitely potty trained during the day, but when she's asleep all bets are off.  We have to get her to go pee right before she goes to sleep or we end up doing a lot of laundry - it happens during naps and during the night.  Once she is out, she has no clue about whether she has to go pee.  I'm sure it will come with time, though.  Anyway.  Ladybug was WHINY all morning, which is never fun.  I got her to laugh a few times by doing little imitations in a way that wasn't mean but funny.  Angelfish told me that I was "super silly."  Angelfish was in a wonderful mood and chatted about her ducky and how she loves muffins.  Seriously, this child loves muffins.  I've never seen anything like it.  Yesterday she walked up to Mr. Darcy after just waking up, looked up at him with this serious little look and said, "MUFFINS, Daddy.  Muffins."  You can't help but laugh at our little carb queen (she gets it from her Daddy).

Finally the girls were in the car, had gotten their kisses and hugs (as did Ducky and Mr. Darcy), and were off.  Poor Mr. Darcy though, Ladybug was screaming and crying and reaching out for me and yelling "Mommy! I want Mommy!"  Always a fun morning.  But then I went for my run and things seemed better.  Lately I haven't felt like running, but today I just got out there and did it and I really enjoyed it.  As Training Buddy once said to me, all you have to do is make it through the 1st 2 minutes.  I opted for the run that was the harder of the two.  40 minutes.  Doesn't sound like much, but I am not a sprinter.  No siree.  Never claimed to be one.  BUT, I was today and it felt great.  I warmed up for 10 minutes in Zone 2, doing 4/1s.  Then I had a 20 minute run where I was to incorporate 4x1 minute sprints with a 2 minute recovery.  I couldn't quite figure out how to make 20 minutes of that, so instead I ran 1 minute, sprinted 1 minute, and then did a 2 minute recovery (walking to bring my heart rate down again).  I did it 5 times and it was perfect.  By the 5th one, I was really, really tired.  But, unlike the last time I tried something like this, I was able to run at least a little bit during my 10 minute cool down, which was supposed to be in Zones 1 and 2.  Sure it was a 1.5/1... run 1.5 minutes and walk 1 minute, but I couldn't even do that last time... I had to run. 

It was super hot out too... and it's still morning.  So I was drenched in sweat (I'm a heavy sweater to start with) by the end of the 40 minutes.  I moved my swim to tomorrow because I figured I needed to get a run in more than I did a swim.  My plan is to get the girls up and to day care and then hit the pool before work.  I'm still hot from the run so that pool sounds awesome right about now...

Captain Jack Sparrow and I

Last night, I did not get to my bike ride.  I went straight from work to volunteer.  It was our last session with the girls at the Callahan Center, and I was bringing cake.  Notice I said I brought cake.  Hell must have frozen over last night because I didn't have one piece, nary a lick of frosting either.  I was will power personified.  Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that we had a dentist speak to the girls and she talked about how plaque is essentially the "poop" from the germs that lives in our mouth.  Okay, no, that wasn't it either.  It really was because I knew we were going for a drink afterwards AND that I know this weekend is my girls' weekend with Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister and while I plan to stay in the Zone as much as possible, girls' weekend usually = margaritas.  And we're going to a beach that is an Old Florida, laid back margaritaville type of a beach.   So I resisted.  And afterwards I had cheese and fruit and a little bit of bread with my glass of wine.

This morning my stomach was not my friend though.  I'm not sure why, but it wasn't conducive to a run or a bike before my 8 an conference call because I needed to be close by the rest room.  By lunch time, my stomach was settled so I did my 60 minute bike with a 10 min w/u, 2x10 minutes in aero while maintaining a cadence of 90 with 5 minutes recovery after each, another 10 minutes hard, and then 10 minutes recovery... all while watching "The Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl."  Captain Jack Sparrow and I were pirating it up!  I love that movie so it makes it easier to deal with the trainer.  Why not hit the road for the 60 minute bike?  A few reasons: 1) it was lunch time and around here it's just like it's rush hour for some reason; and 2) it's muggy and hot; 3) I didn't know yet that my 1:30 conference call would be cancelled and sometimes I set out on a ride and despite following the plan end up somewhere farther from the house than I thought I would be and bike longer... I sometimes think it's subconscious; and 4) I was a little fearful of needing the bathroom when I least expected it.  But I ended up being fine.  Tired and sweating like a mad thing, but fine.

I keep thinking that tomorrow is Friday.  I think this is a bit of wishful thinking because I'm ready to sail off like Captain Jack and Will Turner when they steal the Interceptor.  Little Sister and Adopted Little Sister are two of my closest friends in the world (along with Belle and Artsy Girl and my much missed Angela).  To the point that it's like being with family who you picked.  I can be completely myself and they love me all the same.  There's never an awkward silence, always a lot of laughter and talking, and just all together fun.  And we're going to the beach with no plans but to be on the beach or near the pool with a drink in hand and lots of sunscreen.  So I'm wishing I was already there. 

Adopted Little Sister is trying to get back into shape (she just started last week, she tells me) and wants to run with me this weekend so I'm hoping that will be a make up for my missed run today since I have a swim on the calendar for tomorrow and another run on tap for Friday (if I can squeeze it in between taking the girls to daycare ... Mr. Darcy is off to South Florida again for work... and starting work that day).  The irony is that when I first started all this madness it was because Adopted Little Sister did a triathlon several months before and I figured that if she could do it, I could too.  And we did a 5K together and I was falling apart it was so hard for me, and she was so sweet and didn't run ahead of me even when I told her too.  She gave me a good piece of advice that I use when my brain isn't in it on the run to this day, "pick another point up ahead and run to it... when you're almost there, pick another one."  We're going to look for a 5K to do together this year, and then we are planning on doing a triathlon together next year.  I'm excited and totally game, so I hope she decides to stick with it!

Tonight is gymnastics night and the girls are excited!  They even picked out their leotards to wear this morning and promised to be good listeners so they can have a good class.  I have to admit, it's a lot of fun to watch them in class... at least if they're paying attention.

I also love how they tell on themselves.  Evidently, Mr. Darcy took them to Family Night at the Chik-fil-a where they had their faces painted - Ladybug had flowers painted on her and Angelfish had a purple and black butterfly... I'm guessing Mr. Darcy had fun washing that off before bedtime - and played.  Ladybug told me that she didn't get to have ice cream though because she was whining and crying and not eating her food.  I didn't even know they had gone to Chik-fil-a at that point!

Oh and Angelfish and Ladybug got into an argument over toots (aka passing gas).  This literally was their conversation this morning.
Ladybug: I tooted!  Tooty tooty fresh and fruity!
Angelfish: I tooted too!
Ladybug: Nah uh.  I did!
Angelfish (with her hands on her hips and a grumpy little look): I did! I tooted!
Ladybug: No! I did!  Didn't you see the gas come out of my bottom?? (Forgot to mention, she's naked at this point because she's getting dressed for the day... and she turned and pointed to her bottom at this point)
Me: You can't see that type of gas... it's invisible.
Ladybug: Oh.
Angelfish: I tooted, Ladybug.  I mean it!
Ladybug (stomping her feet): I tooted twice.  You didn't toot.
Me (trying to add humor to the situation so they'd stop arguing): Oh, is that what that smell is??
Angelfish: Ladybug, you don't know.  I made that stinky!
Me: Okay girls.  Enough is enough.  If you're going to fight like this maybe we shouldn't go to gymnastics today.
And they stopped.  Angelfish wandered off to find Mr. Darcy because she had finished dressing, and Ladybug cried about Angelfish saying she had tooted and then got dressed and wandered off.  I think they were really arguing about who was going to get attention, but it was hard not to laugh that this was their topic for the argument.

Oh and it's official!  Mr. Darcy turned in his application for the TNT Century Ride this morning.  Now to get him a bike (other than his hybrid... yikes. can you imagine a Century Ride on a hybrid?).  He says he's going to get a road bike and put a cushy beach cruiser type seat on it.  It cracks me up.  I told him he'd probably give my LBS guys a heart attack if he tried to do that.  He'll also need gloves, a few jerseys and bike shorts, and bike shoes, bike socks (he's still wearing those squishy cotton socks) and clip in pedals.  He already has a helmet... and I'll just pull the front visor thing off it so it doesn't look like a trail helmet.  Knowing Mr. Darcy, he'll probably try to convince me that he can just ride in his cotton t-shirts and squishy socks at first.

Anyone have suggestions for a road bike for him? He's 6'1" and pretty thin, and he used to ride a Walmart special all around campus when we were in college.  He even got a ticket on his old college bike once.  I told him to go to a bunch of shops and ride different brands.  That's what I did and when I found the one that was right, it was like putting on a glove.  But I always like suggestions. : )

The Tuesday That's My Monday

I have to say, I have it pretty good this week.  I had a nice weekend with Mr. Darcy and then we took yesterday off to do projects around the house, and Friday I leave work a little early to go on a girls' weekend to the beach. Of course that also speeds up the pace of this week in wierd and wooly ways.

First, the weekend.  Mr. Darcy and I took the ladies up to his parents' house Friday night. After a rough night with Angelfish who was coughing like she swallowed a barking dog, I took her to the Emergency Clinic.  Turns out Mr. Darcy's doctor from childhood phased himself out of his old practice so he could work part time without having to worry about paying his malpractice insurance (because the clinic pays it for him), and that's who we ended up seeing.  I recognized the name from conversations in the past and introduced myself as Mr. Darcy's wife and Angelfish as one of his daughters.  So that was kind of fun.  Not fun was the fact that Angelfish had bronchitis and was put on amoxicilin.  Whatever that bug was that caused it was quick moving - 3 days from start to bronchitis.  But other than the coughing the kid was fine.  She even sang to me in the waiting room as we left.  After getting home and getting everyone settled, Mr. Darcy and I set out for Fernandina Beach.

It was wonderfully peaceful.  We stayed at a beautiful B&B named "The Williams House."  I would definitely return.  In fact, it was difficult to leave!  We got checked in and then walked to have lunch, wandered around the shops and back to the B&B where we took a 2 hour nap - to be awoken by "At Last" (one of my favorite songs) the bride and groom's 1st dance as a married couple from the wedding being held at the B&B.  Just in time to get ready for dinner!

We walked to dinner at Le Clos, which was really enjoyable and in a cute little house, then watched the sunset and headed to a movie.  Mr. Darcy was all about seeing a movie because "we never get to see movies anymore."  I let him pick... Iron Man 2.  If it had been the triathlon version of IronMan it would have been awesome.  But this wasn't the greatest $20 spent.  I didn't get in any running, but we walked over 4 miles. : )

The next morning we walked around a Civil War fort for a bit, had lunch and then headed on back to The Senior Darcy's.  The girls were thrilled to see us and other than getting peed on while Ladybug was sleeping in my lap (just in time for Mr. Darcy's brother and his wife and children to come in), we had a lovely time!

Yesterday (our official anniversary) we took the girls to daycare and spent the day painting, and plotting future house projects.  Mr. Darcy has convinced me to build a 2nd arch in our hall/kitchen/bar area so that he can live with the fact that there is no "end" to the room for paint.  Something about paint being required to be from an inside corner to an inside corner and if it's one color on one side of the arch it has to be the same on the other.  I'm only 90% in favor of the 2nd arch... and that was only after he mocked it up by taping bumwad (cheap sketch paper) to the ceiling, floor, etc. in the shape and form of what he was proposing.  I like the openness of how our house is, and while the arch won't completely impede it, it still breaks things up... which is Mr. Darcy's point exactly.  I just don't get worked up about stuff like that and decorate the way I want to.  Who needs rules for these things? If you like it, do it!

We still have to finish one of the painting projects tonight, but we'll have painted our entire family room and part of the breakfast nook (we finished the job that had to wait until Mr. Darcy had built out another divider that wasn't sufficient enough and had "no inside corner" to stop the paint - marrying an architect makes decorating a bit troublesome.  Most women do what they want and their husbands keep brushing their teeth.  We have to negotiate from cutting edge metal works to comfy modern yet classic style...).  I won the accent wall of a nice chocolate color only being on one wall.  We also picked out drapes for the living room, bedroom, and guest bedroom too (although we have to exchange one set for a longer variety since our windows are huge.)  Ladybug declared that "Now our house looks just like a princess castle!"  and Angelfish said "the color is GOOD!"  So we're pretty sure they like it.

This morning we discovered that Mr. Darcy accidentally left my car door and the interior light on ALL WEEKEND long.  The battery was so dead that it took 20 minutes of being attached to Mr. Darcy's battery before we could get it to turn over.  And then it was so late that dressed in my running attire, I took the Little Ladies to daycare and had to skip the run.  But I did get in my pushup challenge and sit up challenge before work, at least! I had a 60 minute bike ride on tap anyway, so now it looks like I will do my 4 mile run tomorrow morning (if I can get out the door early enough to be home and ready for an 8 am conference call) and I will do my best to get on the trainer for 60 minutes tonight.  I'm going to see if I can get Mr. Darcy to put my aero bike on the trainer tonight since I'm supposed to stay in aero for 2x10 minutes while at a 90 cadence.  I don't have aero bars on the road bike.

Speaking of cycling, Mr. Darcy has told me that he's going to do the Intercoastal Century Ride with Team in Training!  I'm pretty excited about it.  In fact, I might be more excited than he is.  I wanted to do the ride, but he had said that he wanted his wife back for a little bit.  And keeping in mind that he has survived 2 Team in Training seasons and 1 HIM training in 2 years, I figured I would let it go.  So I was a little surprised that he said he wanted to do it but he says that he is having a hard time getting himself to work out and that this will force him to do it.  So, I'm all for it.  Now to get him to eat healthier... and my "diabolical" plan will have come together.  He says he eats healthy when he eats at home (which is mostly true but the man is a carb fiend), but it's all those times he's not eating at home!

So that's what's going on in our neck of the woods.  Congrats to all the great racers this weekend.  I loved all the race reports!!

Friday Plans Slightly Foibled!

It's Friday!  YAY!!  I am so glad that it is Friday.  This week has seemed to go by so slowly and yet so quickly at the same time. In so many ways, these little faces have kept me happy this week.  Of course, they've also given me some sources of frustration, but I think that's because I forget that they are not even 4 some days.  I have no idea how the school photographer got them to smile like this (or why Angelfish's hair is pulled back for that matter), but I'm thrilled with the results. 

When I look at these pictures, I have to say that they caught the Little Ladies personalities. Ladybug (on the left) has that straight forward and yet happy air about her, and Angelfish has that happy yet impish look like she knows something really funny that you don't or like she's about to tell you a joke.  Priceless.

What wasn't priceless was walking in my kitchen when the floors were wet, carrying my lunch on 2 plates (I didn't want my salad to get chili on it... I'm not that big of a glutton), slipping, falling and landing on my left hip.  Let's just say I'm glad I ingest a good bit of dairy bcause I went down hard.  So hard it brought memories to mind of my bike crash last summer.  I don't have a bruise that you can see on my leg/hip, but if you touch it or if I lay on my side, it hurts and I'm a little stiff walking around.  I do have a pretty nasty bruise on my arm.  As Mr. Darcy said this morning, "You've got a knot on your arm!"

So last night I only did 3 loads of laundry instead of 5, cooked dinner while watching Harry Potter with the little ladies, and got the girls to bed with the help of Mr. Darcy.  Although I fell asleep during their bedtime story on Angelfish's bed... and she woke me up so she could get in bed too. We packed for our trip this morning instead of last night because Mr. Darcy and I were both sleepy heads.

I woke up this with the full intent to do my 10 mile bike and 3 mile brick today.  But life had slightly other plans as Angelfish has a funky cough that this morning was really raspy and I had to put my head to her chest to tell if it was in her throat (it is) or her chest.  After much deliberation as to whether we should let her go to school or stay home (she was complaining that she didn't feel well but only could specify her cough and her tummy hurting), we decided to keep her home for the day.  So I started working early - while entertaining Angelfish and working it so I could work while squeezing in at least part of my workout in.  I did Day 3 of Week 3 of the Pushup Challenge.  Angelfish decided to climb under me during the max set, so I only did 33 because I didn't want to end up falling on her.  Then I got the 10 mile bike ride in on the trainer while working and watching "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse."  I'm going to pack my running gear in the hope I'll get the 3 miles in this evening at my in-laws.  Or maybe on Saturday morning...  My leg/hip was a little stiff at first on the bike, but about 10 minutes in it was fine.  Nothing like slipping on your own floor to make you feel silly.

I am pretty sure that Angelfish has allergies and this isn't a cold, although her teacher was out for almost a week with a cold.  She seems to be her usual spunky self (who ate her chili for dinner last night and was thrilled to have muffins for breakfast), but with a cough that is much looser now.  Life's little adventures always keep us hopping!

Mr. Darcy wants us to go see the last launch liftoff today, especially because it's the last one for Atlantis.  Luckily, (knock on wood) things have been slow this week at work so I can take advantage of it and leave work a little early today.  Mr. Darcy plans to get us this afternoon around 1:30, we'll go to the launch and then head to his parents.    It's the start of the weekend adventure... a little early.

I hope all of you have a wonderful adventure in store for your weekend too! 

Afternoon Funnies and Mother's Day Pictures

So I've got a few other funny things that have been said around the house that I thought would make a nice afternoon post.

The first one requires a little background. Mr. Darcy was doing pushups the other day.  The girls like to "do pushups" with me when I do mine, but they don't quite grasp that you push with your arms.  They push with their legs and it makes their little bodies jack knife so their bottoms are in the air, thus we call them "booty pushups."  Well, Mr. Darcy was doing his pushups and Ladybug looks over and says, "Daddy, those are booty pushups!"  Even Mr. Darcy was laughing.

Last night we were straightening up the girls' playroom and bedroom, and Angelfish wasn't really doing her job that well.  I told her she needed to do her job and she said, "But Mommy, I don't just want to work, work, work all the time!"

And as they say, a picture says a thousand words...

Speaking of pictures, said I'd post some pictures from our Mother's Day fun, so here goes

We started the day by goofing around the house...

Ladybug showing us some dance moves and Angelfish coveting my road bike (while it's on the trainer)

The girls begging for us to leave at the front door

Then we headed out to the beach where we....

Ran on the beach......and in the water

and jumped waves (but couldn't quite get a picture of us in the air)

and built sandcastles

Eventually, we went home and ...

Cooked dinner (notice they changed bathingsuits - they wanted to be ready to swim again)

And ate on the porch because it was such a beautiful day!

The Remains of the Day and a Lovely Start to a Thursday

The Remains of the Day (Wednesday, that is)
As it turns out, Angelfish didn't eat her meat for breakfast either.  Mr. Darcy reported that she only drank her milk and refused her dinner as breakfast.  So we conspired that we would feed it to her for dinner again.  To truly get the point across.  Meanwhile, I got a call from daycare because Ladybug bumped her face against the corner of a shelf.  I talked to her on the phone because she was sitting right next to the woman who called at the time.  She didn't have much to say other than to tell me what happened.  Turns out she was nodding her head in response to my questions and even to "I love you." That'll teach me to ask yes or no questions!

Then it was back to work.  I have to say that I love the crockpot - all that cooking and simmering and making dinner while I work.  Of course the smells in the house made me hungry... I took a little bit of time as my lunch to do a 1/2 hour yoga video, and it dawned me that the reason the pushups were so hard yesterday was because I had just done Day 1 of Week 3 the day before.  Sigh.

Once the work day ended, it was off to gymnastics.  Angelfish and Ladybug are completely in love with gymnastics. Unfortunately, Angelfish also was in love with rolling all over the floor (and the gym equipment) and completely ignoring the teacher while waiting for her turn to do the next tumble, etc.  Ladybug was attempting to pay attention but would get distracted by Angelfish and act up a little too, but not nearly to the level of her sister. SO, we got someone from the front desk (we're not allowed on to the gymnastics floor) to go and retrieve Angelfish.  We made her sit out the rest of the class and then tell the Coach that next week she would be a better listener.  She cried alot.  But I hope we got our point across.

Ladybug on the other hand had a ball once sissy wasn't in class anymore.  She became a great listener and had lots of fun with the jumps and stuff they were doing.  Amazing what splitting them up can do.

And then we had dinner.  Angelfish ate the meat from the night before after dousing it in ketchup.  And then asked for chili like we were eating... and then refused to eat it.  So she was served it for breakfast and refused to eat it.  She'll be having chili tonight while the rest of us are having chicken!  You have to admire the child's tenacity, but little does she know that I'm probably where she got that stubborness and I'm old enough that I'm more stubborn than she is.  I can play this game for months!  As I've told Mr. Darcy before, it's a battle of the wills and as parents we have to be the victors. 

A Lovely Start to A Thursday
This morning I woke at 5 am and left the house a little later than I meant to, but I got to Lucky's Lake in time to meet Kelly (My Life as a TriMommy).  She is very sweet and we chatted away until we got started.  I already knew that she is speedy from her race reports and such, so I didn't expect to keep up with her.  Add to it that when I started swimming (and pretty much all the way until 1500m in to the swim) I realized that my arms are rather sore.  Especially my tricepts.  To the point that I realized I wasn't following through all the way on my stroke because when I did it hurt.  So, I forced myself to slow my pace a little and focus on my stroke.  And for some reason while my sighting was spot on, I was swimming straight for 3/4 of the way across the lake and then crazy swim.  I'm not sure if it was because my mind was much less of a whirlygig than it was the other day or if I was overcompensating for sore arms. 

The 3rd leg of my journey my sighting got off so badly I ended up swimming almost another 250 meters in the wrong direction... at the end of the leg.  And I wondered why that crossing was feeling so long!  But I laughed it off with an older guy that was sitting where I was supposed to be.  I felt badly for Kelly though because I knew she had to get back and was waiting on me.  In fact, as I was trying to cut off the conversation with the older guy for the 1st time, I saw her exit the swim.  A few minutes later I got him to stop talking to me.  (I'm not great at that.  I feel rude, unless it's someone that you get that feeling you don't want to talk to this person at all in the pit of your stomach, then I'm great at ending the conversation and memorizing what they look like and what they are wearing. I guess I'm good at self-preservation.)  And I swam as fast as I could across the lake, and had my best and straightest swim leg of the day.  2500 m done and done!

Kelly got to sign the wall during her wait for me, so luckily it wasn't too big of a wait on me.  And then we had someone take our picture.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera on the kitchen counter when I left so the picture is on her camera.  She promises to post it on her blog and email me a copy.  I have to admit that I'm fearful of the idea of a picture of me in a bathing suit being in blogland, but it was such fun meeting Kelly that I'm going to get over it.  She was super sweet and hopefully if she's in town again another time we can meet up for another swim at Lucky's!

Let's hope the rest of my day is as good as the start!

A Busy Morning

Ever have one of those mornings that seems stockpiled with stuff?  That was me today.  I woke up with very sore abs from the initial test for the "Sit-up Challenge."  So I stretched out and put on my swim suit since I had a 2000m swim on tap.  Packed the bag for the gym, got the girls up and gave them kisses and hugs and headed out the door.

I got the the gym and was at the pool by 7:25am and started my swim.  I did a 100m warm up and realized that I completely forgot what my swim was supposed to be like today: drills? timed?  I could not remember for the life of me.  So I did the next 2000m straight swim.  I meant to only do 1800m but when I got to the 7th set of 8's (I count lengths in groups of 8.  For some reason I don't miscount that way.) I decided to do one more.  When I stopped I realized I had just done a total of 2100m, so I rested a bit and then got out of the pool. 

In history of swims, this was a great swim in my book.  I did 2100m in 41 minutes and some change.  I'm not sure what the change was because I never wear my swim watch (unless I know I have to time myself and report to Coach) and just use the pool clock.  I started the swim kind of tight in my shoulders and chest (Hello Push Up Challenge!), but somewhere after the 1st 500m that eased up.  My abs hurt, but that eased up after the 1st 300m.  By the 1,000m mark I was deep in the zone but my brain was still going a million miles an hour. 

Primarily about Angelfish and how she attempted to (and nearly won) outwill me last night over dinner.  She wouldn't eat her meat.  She was popping chickpeas in her mouth like they were candy and eating her apple, but the turkey burger sat.  I cut it into pieces for her.  I gave her ketchup.  I told her she couldn't go play with Ladybug (who after eating all her food, except the chick peas... which she at least tried asked nicely if she could play in the playroom) until after she finished her meat.  She refused to eat.  She wouldn't talk to me either, said she wanted some quiet time to herself.  I gave her 15 minutes.  I counted down the last 10 of it for her.  Then I took her food, put her in time out and told her that she'd see the food again at breakfast and sent her on her way.  I'm not big about forcing kids to eat, but the thing is that she's been pulling this "I'm not going to eat my meat" and then will ask for cheese later because she's hungry and then throws a crying fit when we won't give it to her.  I have to admire her tenacity, but it also pushes my buttons the way she does it.

Then I thought about all I had to get done today, and how I wanted to go to yoga today during my lunch hour, and how I hoped I'd be able to swim at Lucky's tomorrow with Kelly the other TriMommy who will be in town, and how I should go to Target if I finished my swim early enough to get a food scale, a harness for Annie and a new blender and a new measuring tape.  (Imagine my surprise this morning when I went to make my whey protein shake when there's the top to the blender and the bottom of it but the glass carafe is gone... and then I remembered I broke it on accident about 4 months ago.)  And I thought about having to get Annie a refill on her anti-inflammatory. 

And then it happened.  My brain stopped thinking.  All I heard was my counting in my head as I did my laps.  When I got to the 5th set of 8, I thought.  Let's do 2 more and then do the rest as a cool down.  And then nothing but counting and the sound of the water.  I got to the 7th set of 8 and thought, just 1 more set of 8 and then we'll do a 100 cool down.  That should make 2000m.  (Evidently my math skills had fallen by the wayside since my mind had quieted.)  I finished the 8th 8, and realized something wasn't adding up.  8x8=1600m, and I already did another 2x8 before that so that was another 400m, and then 100 warm up.  So that was 2100m.  OOPS. I felt really good and relaxed, looked at the clock and realized I'd only been in the pool 41 minutes.  Cool.

So then I showered, dressed and headed out to Target (which is in the same shopping complex as the gym).  Got exactly what was on my list (and for under $50!), hit the CVS for Annie's medicine, and arrived home.

Poor Annie was in pain. Really bad pain.  So I gave her medicine and petted her a bit.  Had my little breakfast and put dinner into the crock pot.  A Zone receipe... Three Bean Chili with salad and guacamole is on deck for dinner after the girls' gymnastics class.

I did my pushups and my muscles hurt (including my abs).  Of course, that might be because I usually do my pushups before my workouts and I was doing it after a pretty good swim.  Got Mr. Darcy's email saying that I can meet Kelly at Lucky's tomorrow with no problem, so I'm moving my Friday swim to tomorrow and while that means I again won't be doing the descending sets (sorry Coach), I will be getting a nice swim in.  I'm excited to get to meet a fellow Blogger!  I'm going to do my best to remember my camera so we can try to get a photo before the swim.  Since Friday's swim was supposed to be almost 2500m, I'll do 2 crossings and then swim to the middle of the lake and back.  YAY! 

That pushes my 10 mile bike and 3 mile run block to Friday morning.  I'm also going to do Day 1 of the situp Challenge and Day 3 of Week 3 of the push up challenge on Friday too.

Oh and a little funny before I sign off for more work and some yoga... this morning I kissed Mr. Darcy goodbye before I left for the gym and this was the dialogue that ensued.

Angelfish: OOOHHH.  No kissing on the lips!
Me: I can kiss Daddy on the lips.  He's my husband.
Angelfish: No.  Only I can kiss on the lips!
Mr. Darcy: You can't kiss me on the lips! On the cheek only!
Ladybug: Angelfish, you are silly.  You didn't grow up and graduate college.  No kissing on the lips until then!

If only I can keep that in their heads when their 16...

Did you know...

that there is a 200 sit-up (well, crunch) challenge?  Mr. Darcy said to me last night as he was finishing Day 1 of Week 1 of the push up challenge that he wondered if there was a 100 sit-up challenge because he could use one.  So, I left a comment asking that very question on Jeff's blog (Dangle a Carrot).

Jeff kindly responded to me that there is no 100 Sit-Up Challenge, but there is a 200 Sit-Up Challenge.  It's 6 weeks.  As I will be wearing a bathing suit on a beach for an entire week in a hair less than 6 weeks from today, I am on the case!  (Too bad situps can't remove twin skin at the same time, but it sure is better than nothing!)

If you're interested in doing the 200 Sit-Up Challenge with me (which includes the proper instructions for how to do crunches), please feel free to visit the challenge's website: http://www.twohundredsitups.com/

I'm off to do the initial crunch test!

PS. I scored 61 crunches, although I'm not sure how far off the ground I actually got for the the last 3 and now my abs are burning like mad, but either way I am in the "Very Good" category.  Let's hope that doesn't come to bite me later!

Spring and Zone Fever

I have Spring Fever pretty badly today.  I woke up and it was cloudy out... and I overslept because I stayed up late reading the Zone books that came yesterday.  And the closed road is now open.  Before I go riding the bike on it, I want to drive the car on it to see what it is like.  It has bike lanes but with it open, I'm guessing that I can't just turn around like I used to.  By the time we got the girls ready for school and they were heading out the door with Mr. Darcy, it was already 7:40 and I had just finished Day 1 of Week 3 of the Pushup Challenge.

I have to confess that the pushups were hard today.  I did Day 3 of Week 2 with the max out on Sunday, so I think that my arms may be a little tired still from Sunday.  Or it could be that I was 325 calories shy of 1515 yesterday.  I lost all track of time yesterday and my eating suffered a bit.  Then I jumped on the trainer and watched part of the movie "Sabrina" while I did my 1 1/2 hour bike ride at 85-90 cadence.  When I got off the bike, I noticed that the sun had come out, the clouds had moved away and it was a gorgeous day.  I wished I had ridden outside, but at the same time it felt good to have those tight muscles from pedaling for 90 minutes on the trainer in the big ring, medium gears.

I love the Zone books that I read (all 3 of them - granted one of them was a cook book and one was a short book)!  There were things said in the books that made it like Dr. Sears (the author) was talking directly to me.  Lightbulbs were going off in my head.  For example, the book said "If you're eating too much carbohydrate, you can expect the following, even if you're on a judicious program of aerobic exercise: constant hunger, decreased mental alertness, difficulty in losing body fat (if not out-right fat gain), decreased oxygen transfer to the muscle cells and decreased endurance."  I've always felt like something was wrong with me because I GAINED weight while training for my HIM.  And "So if you've been eating a high carbohydrate diet and you find yourself getting more fatigued with less physical energy and more and more body fat, you know why."  It also talks about how some people are insulin resistant and eating higher levels of carbohydrate makes you fat instead of fueling your exercise.  This style of eating (he is quick to point out that it is meant to be a lifestyle change NOT a diet) also takes into account the paleo style of eating to a certain extent but does not go as far as telling you not to eat beans or dairy, although it encourages you to strongly limit your intake of cereals and grains too.  And the irony was that the calculation that determined my lean body mass, was the exact amount I weighed my junior and senior year of high school..  I'm not saying that my goal is to get down to what I weighed back then, I'm just pointing it out.  As I said to Mr. Darcy last night, I had this feeling that I've been eating too much carbohydrate all this time (during the HIM, it was 60% of my diet and in recent months I'd lowered that to 50% of my diet) and he even said that I was eating alot of carbs - not only was I eating fruits and veggies, but I also was eating pasta, bread, rice and potatoes.

And when I talked to my close friend Belle last week (she called, worried about me after reading my post about gaining weight) she and I talked about when my weight gain started and I told her it wasn't until I was doing triathlons.  She said to me that it had to be the exercise then.  And I thought then as I do now that it couldn't be the exercise because that makes you stronger.  But if it wasn't the quantity I was eating, at the time I thought it must just be my body.  And in a way, after reading the Zone, I was right.  It is how my body reacts to the quantity of carbohydrate that I was eating.

So I am switching to the proportions for eating of the Zone diet.  I started with dinner and my snack before bed (which ironically I have to have one of those to take my Niaspan).  The percentage of calories can be a little misleading, but it's 40% carbohydrate, 30% protein and 30% fat.  Now that fat, is good stuff like avocado, nuts, olive or canola oil.  And the system to use is pretty easy although I'm still having to look at a cheat sheet that I've made for myself to help.  7 grams of protein = 1 block of protein.  9 grams of carbohydrate = 1 block of carbohydrate. and  1 1/2 grams of fat = 1 block of fat.  You use a formula that uses your lean body mass and activity level will determine the blocks of protein you need in a day.  Based on that, you allocate your blocks throughout your day at the very least among 3 meals and 2 snacks a day.  So, for example, I have 13.5 blocks of protein each day.  Since I train 1st thing in the morning, I have 2 blocks of protein, carb and fat before I work out.  Then I have 2 after.  I have 3 at lunch and dinner, 2 as an afternoon snack and 1.5 as an evening snack.  And you don't have to cut dairy out of your diet. 

The dairy thing was the part about the Paleo Diet that really bothered me.  My entire life I have been a big dairy person.  In high school (when I was my thinnest... 118 was my "highest" weight before leaving for college and you could see my ribs and hips when I was standing up despite eating like a mad woman), I drank skim milk and ate low fat cheese (including cottage cheese) like I couldn't get enough of it.  I LOVE it.  It counts as a carb and a protein in some forms (i.e. yogurt), but it's still doable.

Anyway, my plan is to paleo eat (so no beans or peas and as few processed foods as possible outside of dairy, although I'm making an exception for black beans on occasion and hummus/chickpeas) but in the Zone system.  And not to worry, I've eaten more this morning.  I made 2 slight miscalculations that I'll fix at lunch or in my afternoon snack, but so far I've eaten an orange and 1/2 a cup of yogurt, 2 cheese sticks, 3 almonds, 3 oz of chicken, and an apple!  That's 6 protein, 4 carb, and 1 fat block.  So I have to lessen my protein blocks by 2 and add an extra fat (so 3 more almonds).  OOPS.  I know where I made the mistake though, and they tell you that you'll mess up at first until you get used to it but that as long as you work it out and get yourself "in the Zone" you'll be fine!  Oh and a 4 oz glass of wine with 1 oz of cheese can be a bed time snack!  Happy Day!

I think the real reason why I'm so excited about this is that for the first time in a long time I feel like I have hope.  Like what I knew in the back of my mind despite the tons of articles about how athletes should eat LOTS of carbs and in the traditional sense of carbs (bread, rice, potato, etc.) instead of from fruits and veggies that something about this didn't work well for my body was right.  The science behind it is interesting too... that food is like a medicine and should be used that way in addition to enjoying eating.  And that this is healthy for the entire family (they even give examples of kids meals in the cook book I bought) so I don't have to try to eat differently from everyone else.  Of course, Mr. Darcy will take some re-programming as he is a traditional carbohydrate boy at heart (his favorite snack - cheezeits) and is one of those lucky ones who doesn't really gain weight no matter what he eats.  I still have the worry that this might not work either.  But at the very least, I'll be able to say I have truly tried everything I could think of (because I can always drop the dairy part out too to be a truly Paleo and Zone eater).

I'm hoping to hit the grocery store during my lunch hour (especially since we are low on food) and stock up on fruits, veggies, lean proteins!  I haven't been excited about eating in a long time.  But I feel excited now!

And I'm looking out the window at this gorgeous day and wishing I didn't have to sit behind a desk.  But sitting behind the desk is worth the paycheck so I'll just have to eat dinner out on the porch again!

PS. My friend Doug is having a tough time with it at the moment with graft vs host disease.  His body appears to be trying to reject the bone marrow transplant.  Please send positive thoughts and/or prayers his way.  You can read about his journey and what he and his family is going through at: http://dougstransplantjourney.webs.com/apps/blog/.