The End to Tri Season

Today was my last triathlon of the season.  Jen and I did 4 this year, and hope to do 5 or 6 next year.  I love everything about triathlons.  I love the change in pace from swim to bike to run.

The first tri we did this year was the Kansas City Triathlon on May 20th.  Last year, the water temp was only 59 degrees, but this year we warmed up to 69 degrees, which is a huge difference, but still cold.  Gotta love the first tri of the season!  Our 2011 time was 3:29 and our 2012 time was 3:24.  We were SO please with this improvement.  However, we both had bike envy as we stared down our competition, and also realized how well we do on the swim and the run, but got our butts kicked on the bike.  And we are competitive, and didn't like that, so that was the last triathlon we did on our old road bikes.  By old I mean mine was an early 90s Trek and Jen's was an 80s Schwinn.

Enter the era of "The New Babies."  Jen got a brand new Felt tri bike and I got a used (but still a 2012) Cannondale tri bike.  Let me just say, we love them more than most humans we come in contact with on a daily basis.  And I wish I were exaggerating!  AND, they make a huge difference.  We give the same amount of effort and fly down the road at about 4mph faster, and don't feel like we are trying nearly as hard.  And uphill?  Wow!  Where we used to slow down to about 8-9 mph we are now going about 12mph.  Just love them.

So we tried out our new bikes at the Shawnee Mission Triathlon on July 8th.  We finished in 1:13 and floated on cloud 9 for days.  That is one heck of a hilly bike course!  And this was the first time we finished and saw our names on the first page of the results!

We had high hopes of really getting going on our bikes at the Midwest Meltdown Triathlon on August 26th.  However, it decided to rain for the first time all summer, and mixed with the 8 tons of brand new asphalt they put down on the bike course, we took it easy.  This was a great course.  The swim was 750m instead of 500m, but Jen and I locked in at a 1:50 pace, which was great!  This was the first triathlon I finally got into a swim groove.  I wasn't being "as" clobbered by other people, so that was a major factor.  We also had a great run!  Our 5k time was 25:59.  This will be a redo next year because the bike course was really flat, and hopefully the roads will be dry next year so we can fly!

Today we did the Olathe Medical Center Women's Triathlon.  We found out earlier this week that we were in different swim heats.  This doesn't work for us.  Jen and I do triathlons TOGETHER!  And our heats were 30 minutes apart.  And they said if we miss our heat, we can't participate.  So we had to regroup and plan to go solo.  Not cool.  Jen started at 7:35 and I got to watch her entire swim, which was fun.  I started at 8:05, and she was completely done by the time I got off the bike.  Have I ever mentioned I hate to run by myself?  Well, I do.  And Jen and I have a system.  My watch tracks our entire tri time and our splits.  But it doesn't show my pace.  Jen's watch paces our run.  We both have speedometers on our bikes, and neither one of them were working today, so we had NO idea where we were on the bike.  And without Jen, I had no idea where I was on the run.  On both, I just decided to push til it hurts, and then I knew I was giving it my best effort.  My swim was 10:15 for 500m, my bike was 38 minutes for 10.6 miles and my run was 25:29 for 3 miles.  I placed 7th in my age group and 39th of 307 overall.  Jen did fantastic too, and our times were only a couple minutes apart.  However, it just wasn't the same without her.  I'm bummed we aren't the same age.  We are 7 years apart, so this heat division problem is going to definitely come into play again in the future.

In the off season, we both plan on getting more miles on our bikes.  I can't wait until May 2013 rolls around so we can do it all again!

How Is My Baby FIVE?

In honor of Chief's Friday, here's my happy lil Chief's fan!

And the big FIVE year old!

Bodey, I'm not quite sure how you did it, but you woke up five years old this morning.  I told you I wasn't going to let you, but you did it anyways.  Secretly, I'm really happy.  So happy to have such a healthy boy that is growing overnight.  

When I woke up to sing happy birthday to you, in true Bodey fashion, this is how it went.

          Me (singing):  Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....

          You interrupt:  Um, mom?  I had a wet fart!

And that was how your fifth birthday started!

You are the most fun-loving, crazy, redneck, tough, lovable, ornery, sweet, funny, and smiley 5-year old I know!  We love you!

Not All It's Cracked Up to Be

Conversation tonight while tucking in Bodey:

Me:  This is my last night hugging you as a 4-year old.  Did you know when you wake up in the morning you'll be five??

Bodey, extremely excited:  Yeah, and I probably won't fit into any of my clothes!!!

Me:  Do you think you'll be a lot bigger in the morning, too?

Bodey:  Well, ya, I'll be five.  Booker's six and he's a lot bigger!!!

Poor kid, what a let down!!

Thunder and Major

We said good-bye to Thunder and Major tonight.  I went to feed the frogs their crickets, which is normally really entertaining to watch because Booker's frog, Thunder, attacks the crickets, and Bodey's frog, Major, is sooooo lazy you have to move the crickets right to it's mouth.  Major was lucky enough to have a cricket basically jump in his mouth tonight, but I noticed Booker's wasn't attacking.  I knew right away that he was dead.  And I was scared.  I've been dreading a pet passing away for a while now because the kids get so attached... even to frogs.  I have to admit I was a tad attached to them too.  My heart just dropped.  I told Booker and he immediately burst into tears.  I just went and loved on him, telling him sorry, and gave him the speech that pets are only here for a short period of time and we are so lucky to get to enjoy them for that short time.  While Booker was crying Bodey said he could share his frog with him.  Then we gave in to Booker's request to bury him in the front yard (not the back yard because he didn't want Avery to dig him up).  While I was outside digging a hole in our landscaping, Dusty somehow talked Bodey into letting his frog free, so he wouldn't die too.  Bodey thought that was a good idea.  What a strong little boy.  So we buried one, let the other go, and then celebrated with ice cream that Thunder was partying it up in Heaven!

Booker's a 1st Grader!

Day one of 1st grade - success!!  I was relieved that Booker wasn't nervous, anxious, scared or sad to march right in to school this morning.  Makes it a little easier on mom, who is nervous, anxious, scared and sad.  After school he had a great report, with a few details, which is different from last year.  Almost every day last year his response on how his day went was "good."  Today he told me about recess, jitter juice (they got to drink to help them get rid of any first day jitters), what he found outside, who he played with, who got to move their card to purple, etc.  He loves his teacher and is ready for day two!

The End of Summer

This was my first full summer off with my kids; something I've always looked forward to.  I had a lot of big, fun things on our agenda... but really didn't accomplish much.  We played in true summer fashion.  We have the other 9 months of the year to have our agenda packed, so we just did whatever came up.  We played with friends, went to the movies, went to Montana, had swimming lessons, attended a wrestling camp, rode 4-wheelers, tended to our garden, played t-ball, and went to the pool.  We swam about 3 days a week.  This proved to not only be fun and a good time killer, but very educational.  I cannot believe how far my boys came in 8 weeks of free time in the pool.  The first day at the pool I was very much on guard, debating whether or not they should have their floaties on.  I strictly laid the law on where they could and couldn't go.  By the end of the summer they were doing just about anything and everything they wanted.  They learned how to do front and back flips in the water, mastered floating, worked on swimming on their fronts and backs, dove for all sorts of toys at the bottom of the pool, went on the slide, and jumped off the diving boards.  Bodey really excelled in his swimming skills.  He is more of a natural swimmer than Booker.  Booker is very tight and tense in the water, causing him to sink easily.  Bodey is so much more relaxed and easier to teach.  It really hit home how far they have come on Sunday, when we went to a birthday party at the Y.  They changed their rules that if you haven't passed the swim test, you have to wear a life jacket.  The test?  Swimming 25 meters without touching the ground, rope or wall.  Booker jumped in and swam the ugliest 25 meters I have ever seen.  He took a breath about every foot, he looked like he was struggling the entire way, and I think the lifeguard thought he was going to have to go in after him several times.  But he made it and was so proud of himself!  Bodey jumped in and started swimming a very strong freestyle.  He made it to about 10 feet from the end, and said he was scared and grabbed the wall... so he had to wear a life jacket.  But not for long.  He couldn't do flips with his life jacket on, so we asked if he could test again, and he passed with flying colors.  I was so proud of them both.  Next summer, we are going to do swim team with Jen's girls.  I see my anxiety about my kids being in water slowly disappearing.  And that is such a good feeling!

Booker starts 1st grade tomorrow.  I can't believe he's that old already.  The entire summer I was dreading school starting.  Until last week.  Now it is time.  These boys need time away from each other - and their mother!  And I need some time without kids in my house so I can attempt to clean it without them dirtying it right behind me.

Bodey will start his second (and last) year of preschool on Monday.  He technically could have gone to kindergarten this year, but the thought of having my babies graduate high school back to back kills me!  And,  truthfully, he's just not ready.  He needs another year to mature.  Hopefully one year will do the trick!  His 5th birthday is quickly approaching.  FIVE?  My baby is almost FIVE?  That's not a baby, and that makes me sad.  We plan on celebrating his birthday at Screamin' Oaks Farm with some of his closest friends and family.  Should be a good time!

The boys riding their 4-wheelers at Nana & Papa's.

The Wild Things

He has an eye for bugs!

Whittling wood with their pocket knives.

4th of July at the T-Bones!

Struggling

I am struggling because Bodey is struggling.  We've had two days in a row now where he has been on his worst behavior at the Y.  He is hurting his friends, whose parents are my friends.  I fear for Bodey.  I fear that we are never going to be able to dig to the bottom of this behavior, and I fear he won't have any friends. It's extremely frustrating.  I don't think people understand how difficult it is to parent a resistant child.  I feel like I'm being judged by everyone.  I feel like I'm completely failing as a parent.  My only proof that I'm not a completely horrible parent is Booker.  I'm looking forward to school starting so we have a set schedule again.  But I'm also dreading it, because school is a prime location for Bodey to act up.  And then I get to deal with his poor teachers, and their newest, latest and greatest plan for managing my disruptive kid.  I gotta hand it to them though, they are really good!  On a good note, Bodey used to act like this every single day.  Now it just goes in spurts.  Really bad spurts.  But, now I am going back to square one of reading books and praying for help.  Positive pep talks and all forms of discipline aren't really getting the job done.  Hopefully he outgrows this.