I Finished My FIRST TRIATHALON!!!

(before the start of the race... by my bike...my favorite is my pink computer on my bike :)

like how my body marking reprinted on my tri-suit... I'll remember my number forever now because it's stained onto it :)

So in January as my sisters were training for running races, I decided I wanted to do something. We are going to Costa Rica in June for our ten year anniversary... and I wanted to get into bathing suit shape, or "look good naked shape." :) I don't necessarily enjoy running alot, but I love to swim and I thought a triathlon would be really fun. So I've been training and I signed up for my first one. I got a road bike and I've been cycling with a cycling club and having a lot of fun. Eric has been incredibly supportive helping me juggle the kids with rides, swims and workouts. He's sweet to call me in the middle of the day and ask how my workout was.

Memorial Day weekend, I did the CapTexTri in Austin Texas. Austin is the capital and the Triathlon is right in the heart of downtown. It was so much fun! I actually did alright for my first time. I did the "MyFirstTri" race, which was the rookie race and the shortest distance: 400meter swim, 10K bike, 5K run. And I actually took 4th place overall! I couldn't believe it! I am officially addicted. I am signed up for my next one in the end of July.

We started out treading water in the lake... There was just over 100 ladies doing the "My First Tri" and over 3,000 athletes doing one of the distances that day. A little intimidating for me. I really like swimming in a clean pool with a stripe down the middle of the land better... but I just thought if I swam as fast as I could, it would be over soon. The water was 68 degrees.. a little chilly. Lots of people had wetsuit, I didn't. So I was a little psyched out about that.

This was me (above) just about to finish. It was nice, they had a lot of volunteers helping you up this ramp. You're a little dizzy after a long swim, trying to run up a ramp

Swimming... swimming I ended up being 3rd in the swimming.

Starting out on the bike.. dripping wet of course

and then the run.. no flattering pictures on the run part, so use your imagination. :)

My mom met us in Austin and helped Eric with the kids during my race. She is the BEST!

My kids were so cute and kept telling me how proud of me they were... I loved it.

I made these shirts for them.. since it was Memorial Day I did the red/white and blue. And did a homemade silk screen with paint.

Best little cheer squad ever!

My New Favorite Blueberry Muffins

I made blueberry muffins the other... month... and I've been a slacker when it comes to blogging, so I wanted to post the recipe becuase it's so yummy. I didn't have any muffin liners and I've always wanted to try the parchment paper route because bakery's always look so fancy baking their delectable treats in them... I think they might even taste better in the parchment. Just because it looks so pretty. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com

I didn't have fresh blueberries at the time, so I used frozen and they turned out great too!

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DirectionsPreheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Homemade Silk Screen T's

I was asked to help Taylor's class do end of the school year kick ball T-shirts. As I was brainstorming, my sister Sarah suggested doing homemade silk screen T's. They turned out pretty cute, I even made some T-shirts for the kids to wear during my triathlon. It's so easy that Taylor's class each made their own once I had it set up for them.

Here's how you do them:

Supplies that you need:

A Cricut/ or Stencil with Exacto knife

Cotton T-shirt

Fabric Paint

and old Credit Card

Cardboard for inside the T, so it doesn't bleed through

Freezer Paper

and Iron

Take your freezer paper and cut a 12x12 piece to fit your cricut

and choose your font on your cricut and line it up so it's centered

I had to increase the pressure a little and baby it a tad so the freezer paper wouldn't tear

Once you have it cut out to your liking... it make take some experimenting

Iron on the freezer paper SHINY SIDE DOWN,to your cotton T-shirt

Lining up the stencil where you want it on your shirt

The ironed on freezer paper temporarily fuses to the t-shirt and acts as a perfect stencil

THIS IS WHERE I DON'T HAVE A PIC.. SORRY

TAKE YOUR FABRIC PAINT.. I USED A LITTLE SQUEEZED ONTO A PAPER PLATE AND YOUR CREDIT CARD AND WITH THE CARDBOARD INSIDE YOUR SHIRT,

SMEAR THE PAINT WITH YOUR CREDIT CARD AT A 45 DEGREE ANGLE

OVER THE OPEN SPACE OF YOUR LETTERS

YOU DON'T NEED A LOT OF PAINT, A LITTLE GOES A LONG WAY

ONCE IT DRIES, PEEL THE FREEZER PAPER OFF, AND ....

Waa Laa! You have your own silk screen T-shirt

Taylor's class loved making their T-shirts. I had the stencils all ironed on and they smeared the paint. They all weren't perfect, but they loved them.

These are the shirts I made for my kids to wear for my triathlon

I thought they turned out really cute

Mother's Day Triathlon

Heather Ellis and Me

In order to prepare for the triathlon in Austin, we did the same distance here in Abilene with a few other ladies. We swam in the YMCA pool and biked the neighborhood around the YMCA and then ran the park. Our distance: 400meter swim, 10K bike, 5K run. It was really fun to do it with Heather, Stephanie and Carla. We've been workout buddies through all of this.

We did great ladies!!!

Mother's Day Weekend

I had a fabulous weekend celebrating Mother's Day. Saturday I did my first triathalon with a few ladies here in Abilene. (see next post) And then was totally pampered on Sunday. I got to sleep in Sunday morning, which in and of itself is a present for me. I need to do that more often. The kids woke me up singing, "Happy Mother's Day to You" and brought me a gourment breakfast: southwest omelet with avacado and tomatoe with seasoned hashbrowns and turkey breakfast sausage! So YUMMY! I know I was supposed to take a picture, but I was too hungry and lazy to get the camera.

So here in Abilene the Mother's Day tradition is to have a little social during Relief Society at church to honor the mothers and give everyone a day off of teaching primary or young womens. So when Eric heard that a few ladies cooked last year, he offered to cook a little luncheon so the mommies could have the day off. Eric is sooo GREAT! He did these amazing Corn Tortilla pulled pork tacos with a coleslaw on top and had this amazing corn, black bean, tomatoe and avacado salad on the side. I made some Texas Sheet Cakes and we had ice cream with our cake. It was a hit and Eric is on every lady's list of GREAT GUYS! Thanks Eric.

He ended his marathon day of making a great dinner for us: Cedar plank Potlach Salmon, with grilled asparagus, and the corn and black bean salad. So Yummy! (this I took a picture of..)

I am so blessed to be a mother and wife. I feel so blessed that I have a great husband who validates my role as a wife and mother and appreciates the things I do. Love you sweetie.

My kids were also so tender today, trying really hard to help and not bicker. Taylor heard about her friends mom getting chocolate covered strawberries delievered to her door, and I think she felt bad that I didn't have any. So her and her friend made me some, (all on their own, Eric didn't help at all) while I was at the store on Saturday.

They chopped up TWIX candy bars and sprinkled it on the chocolate while it was still wet

Of course I had to share... :)

Northern Oaks Easter Egg Hunt

Enjoying our picnic dinner:-)

Eric served hot dogs and sausages with his famous, Sweet Heat BBQ sauce. It was a hit!

Taylor doing some quality control on the signage...

My favorite couple: The Hundley's. Mavis is who I want to be when I'm 80. Her husband lives here at Northern Oaks and she comes to be with him all day everyday. She feeds him all his meals and is there to help him with everything he needs. There are nurses that could do it, but she wants to and is the just one of the kindest people I've ever known. She is such an example to me.

We had a fun Easter Egg Hunt and Barbeque at Eric's work the week of Easter. Eric loves to Barbeque and throw parties, not just here at home; so it was fitting for Northern Oaks to have their first annual Easter Egg Hunt and Barbeque. All the residents were there with their families and also the associates and their families. It was really fun. The eggs just covered the grass and it was like a sea of seagulls swooping in and eating all the cricuts when the kids ran across and devoured the eggs. The kids had a great time and I think the residents really loved seeing all the kids there hunting for eggs. Eric put on a great party as always.

Perini's Steak House

Authentic Texas Rustic Steakhouse: Perini's Steakhouse

Buffalo Gap, Texas

This entire town is like walking back in time 40 or 50 years ago. It's a little town south of Abilene about 10 miles, and it has a little historic area with little shops, and an old jail that's been made over into a touristy area.

When your eating at the restuarant you almost feel like John Wayne himself is going to walk in and get a table. ... fun atmosphere, and great food

We got a babysitter on Friday night once everyone was here and went to Perini's Steak House in Buffalo Gap. It was delicious. We all got their famous burger. I know... why get the burger when you are at a Texas Steak House. Well Mr. Perini won the Best Burger Contest on the Today Show last year with this burger! It's really yummy and really big! Everythings bigger in Texas, right!?

Easter Weekend

We had such a fun Easter Weekend with Eric's Family. Ben and Summer and their kids came over from Ft. Worth and Eric's parents drove up from Houston. We got a babysitter on Friday night once everyone was here and went to Perini's Steak House in Buffalo Gap. It was delicious. We all got their famous burger. I know... why get the burger when you are at a Texas Steak House. Well Mr. Perini won the Best Burger Contest on the Today Show last year with this burger! It's really yummy and really big! Everythings bigger in Texas, right!?

Saturday morning we went to Albany, a little town close by and did some shopping and the kids had yet another egg hunt. (We will have candy for years...)

Look, we grew an Easter egg in the Garden!

The kids waiting patiently to come down and find their baskets. I so remember having to pause at the top of the stairs for the dreaded picture on Christmas and Easter mornings.

Taylor with her loot!

Mimi had prizes for the kids... Mimi, you're the best!

Uncle Ben tending the babies

Mimi helping Peyton get into her egg... I don't think she wants to surrender it, in fear that she won't get what's inside.

This happened over and over again... Put a few eggs in and then lift it up and dump it over...

"Wait, don't hunt for the eggs yet, we've got to take a group picture"

Oh Mooomm...

After a little anxiety, Brent found his easter basket in the cuboard... Zhu Zhu pets... !!

Taylor was also super excited to find a Zhu Zhu pet in her basket

Do they look alike or what!?

What a fun weekend we had! Thanks Summer and Ben, Mimi and Poppie for coming to Abilene!

My Latest Project...Wheelchair Bags

Some Relief Society Ladies with Barb, the Social Worker at Northern Oaks who helped us deliver the bags.

I think he loves his new walker bag! What do you think?

All the goodies the RS dontated to go into the bags

Our Amazing RS who helped embellish all the bags!

These little business cards were all in each bag

bags, bags and more bags....

So we love to go and visit the residents at Eric's facility. The kids love to visit because they always get candy from a few of their "adopted grandmas." So a few months ago I was visiting with Ms. Judy and she had this bag that hung from her wheelchair filled to the brim with her things and hanging off of it was a needle and thread, because it was literally falling apart. So the next time I went up there I took a measuring tape and camera because I wanted to make Ms. Judy a new bag. I had a great time making her cute new bag... I was thinking in my crazy unrealistic good intention mind... " I want to make everyone a little wheelchair bag." Everyone needs a place for their personals, and needs it accessible. About this same time our Relief Society president called Eric and asked if he had any service opportunities around his place that the RS could help out with. ... They were inspired... becuase Wha Laa... we joined forces and through lots of sewing helpers and lots of time we sewed over 70 wheelchair bags and walker bags for the residents. The RS sisters also dontated tons of fillers for the bags: crosswords puzzles, memo pads, pens, hand lotion, magnifiying glasses, etc.

Our RS activity last month was getting together to embellish the bags and fill them with all the goodies. It was so fun!! And very exciting to get such a big project done. We delivered them the next week to the facility and the residents and staff loved them! They were just tickeled to each get one. We even had a lot of extras for new residents when they check in, they get a beautiful little wheelchair bag for their personals. It was such a fun project! And even more fun to deliver them and see how much the residents liked them.

My Soccer Stars

Soccer Season is here and now we have two soccer stars. If you click on the page, it'll enlarge, so you can see them better. :)

Brent has enjoyed soccer season for the most part. His first game he ran around the field after his shadow. Jogging around really extending his running arms and watching his shadow do lots of trick. He especially admired himself in his shiny new uniform. He kept looking at us and doing his thumbs up and smiling... just as the pack of kids would run past him moving the ball down the field. He really had no clue what was going on. I thought it was really funny. Eric was a little frustrated. But hey, he's FOUR! And it's OK.

His next game he scored three goals... ( it was for the other team, but we didn't tell him that part...)