Triathlon #2 and Some Other Gems...

I feel like I start every blog post with this statement.... "Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated this blog!" Well, my feelings remain the same. I have the best intentions to be more constistent with blogging, and yet always falter in my achievement of it. So, let's play catch up, yet again, for the past couple of months.

April 30th, 2011

*First things first... some friends and I put together a little traithlon. We swam in our pool on campus, biked on the Skunk Creek Trail (which is practically our backyard), and ran a sweet route back to campus. There were several things that I loved about this race:

1. You could take it at your own pace. We had girls that just biked and ran, we had girls that biked for 8 miles and some that biked for 12, etc. So there wasn't really any pressure, and it was just FUN.

2. There were only 4 people in the pool at the same time :) As opposed to the 12 people in one lane at a time during my 1st Tri. I was able to have my fastest swim time EVER (up until that point) at 9:56. (Because I'm the best swimmer ever now [tee hee], and actually like to swim, I've cut that time down to 8:26 and am trying to get even faster!!!)

3. Amanda and Chris set up a rotation station that had gatorade and fresh fruit for us. They timed us, figured out our splits, made a sweet poster for us, and took pictures of us throughout the entire event. It wouldn't have been NEARLY as awesome without them-- they were the stars of the day!

Needless to say, it was a really good day and I was so proud of the girls that went through with it. We all trained together, and it was awesome to see everyone crossing that finish line. What an accomplishment! I felt really good about the race personally. My goals were to beat my first Tri time (2 hrs. and 4 minutes), and to run the whole 5k. In my first Tri, I got a serious cramp in my quad and had to walk a majority of the 5k, so I really wanted to run the whole thing this time. Happy to report that I accomplished both goals. I finished the race at 1 hr. 33 minutes!! I was also able to run the whole 5k. My only disappointment was that I felt I should have pushed myself a little harder in the 5k. But, I was so worried about pushing too hard at the beginning and then not being able to finish strong, that I just took things slowly all around. Next time, I think I'll push just a little harder :)

Here are some pics from the event!

Me racing towards the finish line. Did I mention that it was SOOOOOO windy the day of the race? We were going against the wind for most of the bike and most of the run, so that made things pretty hard core.... what a challenge!

Woot Woot!! I did it!

My sweet support team! Love my boys!

All the lovely ladies involved: Maria, Rayna, Sarah, Me, Camille, Anslin's MIL, Flo, and Linsey... and that's Amanda's hand (nice photography, Brett :))

Whew! Ok, onto other gems:

Uhh... struggling to remember ANYTHING exciting that happened last month. Maybe this is why I don't update the blog very often....

So, here's a fun picture just for kicks. Brett and I went to PF Changs for our anniversary and got the delicious Mongolian Beef. We had leftovers for lunch the next day and innocently threw the container in the recycle bin. Little did we know that our little scavenger (aka The Bubs) had gotten into the recycling bin, until this sweet little face greeted us:

No, that's not leprosy, folks... it's the Mongolian Beef sauce remnants. He had gotten the old container out and was sampling some of it for himself-- rude that we didn't offer any to him, huh? You gotta do, what you gotta do... I mean, it was MONGOLIAN BEEF!

Last but not least, we are still in limbo waiting for a miracle-- a job offer :) Brett got a call last week from Pasco, WA which is looking promising (MAYBE... and now I'm knocking on wood, frantically.) We should know by the end of the week if we get to go for a personal interview. Other than that, there have been no takers, but we have not hit complete panic mode yet (other than the mental break downs that I have almost every other day) and are hopeful that things will work out, and work out in our best interest. Keep those prayers coming, peeps! Welp, someday, when I get around to it, I'll post pictures from our trip to Prescott. Kind of a disaster of a trip, but some silly pictures and memories to ease the throbbing pain of one night in a hotel room with my son...so stay tuned for that :)

Our Crazy Month!!

April has turned out to be quite the month for our family! We've been incredibly busy, and doing such fun things... here's a recap for you!

Just for kicks, Brett and I decided to go the Stanley Cup Playoffs!! We were in attendance for the 4th game in the series between the Coyotes and the Red Wings. Now, obviously, we were rooting for the Coyotes (because I have an intense hatred for the Red Wings and because they're our home town team.... for now) but we were surprised by how many Red Wings fans there were. We were SURROUNDED by them! I thought the guys behind us were going to be a problem... they were loud, crass, and drunk-- but as the Red Wings kept getting better throughout the game, their attitudes got better too, so we were able to have fun anyway. We did end up losing (6-3, and they got swept in the series...) but it was nice to be able to be rooting for the home team. The only other times we've gone to a Coyotes game is when the Av's are here and we're cheering for MY team... so it was nice to celebrate when the big buzzer is going off for once :) Even though we lost, we still had a great time, and now I can say that I've been to a Playoffs game :) (Check that off the bucket list!)

My first Playoff game! Go Coyotes!

Next up, is Easter! The Bubs unfortunately got pretty sick the Thursday before Easter. By Saturday, he was doing a lot better, but wasn't quite up to par. So, he missed the Midwestern Easter Egg hunt. (It's a pretty big deal up here, kind of like a carnival...) So, we decided that we had to make our own egg hunt for him. We colored the eggs and then I went and hid them on the lawn out by our pool, and Brett brought the Bubster with his Easter basket to collect the goods. Then the Easter Bunny came while we were gone and brought us fun new books, toys, and a frisbee for Brett and I :) We had a great Easter Sunday and had a fantastic meal with our best buds, Sarah, Greg and Macy! What a perfect way to end such a wonderful day!

Man, are we talented egg colorists, or what??

My child has been obsessed with placing things on his head and walking around while he can't see. Case in point: In the pictures below is the box that his Alphabet blocks go in. He put this on his head and started walking around the house with the box covering his eyes. That means he was running into walls, chairs, and anything else that got in his way. He would fall over, start laughing, bring the box up and say "peek-a-boo" and then would put the box back over his eyes and start walking around again. Greatest. Game. Ever. He repeated this fun game when we were at the playground yesterday. He found a massive bucket, stuck it on his head and continued to walk around and run into the fence, the playground equipment, etc. What a nut!

Uhh... excuse his nakedness-- I don't remember why his shirt was off, but I'm sure there's a very good reason :)

Happy Easter! Here we are in our Easter best. Thanks to Mama Rae for the sweet vest, and I was excited to wear a dress that I haven't fit into for about 2 years :)

Bubs and Macy playing the piano! (They are incredibly skilled....)

Brett and I celebrated our 3rd Anniversary yesterday! We went to PF Changs, ate a TON of good food, and then watched the Proposal (because... it has to do with getting married....)

So, there's the end of the month for us! I have my Tri on Saturday, and then life (luckily) is going to slow down a little bit! The last couple of weeks have been a little hectic and I'm ready for a break!!

"B" Week

I put together an Alphabet Learning program while the Bubs was immobile (gosh, weren't those the days??) We started it a little while ago-- and he's ROCKIN' it! He can say the sounds for all of the letters of the alphabet (well, except for 'n', he usually just makes the 'm' sound for that one too...) and he recognizes most of the letters and can name a few. My favorite is when I wear t-shirts with writing on them and all of a sudden he'll just start pointing and yelling, "wah-wah-wah" (That's what the 'W' says.) I was wearing a Colorado Avalanche shirt the other day and he was going CRAZY pointing at all of the letters...

Anyway, just wanted to post a pic of adorableness from our "B" week. It was "Baker" day. We learned what a baker was, colored a picture of a baker, made a baker hat, read "The Little Red Hen", and of course... baked! We made chocolate banana bread and then tasted our creation.... here was the result:

Before partaking:

My Little Baker!

Dang, I love this kid! Happy baking!

The Most Random Blog Post EVER!

Ok, ok, I know it's been about 17 years since I've posted anything. Yes, I do accept my award for lamest blogger EVER. So, because of my procrastination, this will be a very random/fun post of all of the things we've done (over the past 3 1/2 months! Woot!) Here are some highlights of our lives the past couple of months:

January:

*This was so long ago, I don't even remember what happened... (see?? Lamest post EVER.)

February:

*Valentine's Day-- I made a cake (my first one with fondant). It was a lot easier than I thought, but I should have bought dowels, because my cake got a little "bow legged". It tasted pretty dang good though :)

March:

*My 26th birthday! It was actually kind of a lame day (we won't name names as to why it was a bad day, *cough, MICHAEL, cough*) But the day after my birthday was FANTASTIC! So, I figure it cancels out the badness of the actual day :)

*Brett's parents came in to town for a few days and we had a ball with them (although we're sad to report that the weather did not cooperate while they were here... it really DOES rain in Arizona!)

*I decided to do another Triathlon. This one is on April 30th... YIKES! Not much time to train.

April:

*Whew! All caught up! So far this month:

*Brett and I went to the Av's/Coyotes game which ROCKED! We went in with VERY low expectations (the Av's have been stinking it up recently...) and it actually turned out to be the most exciting game I've ever been to! It went into Overtime and then to a SHOOT OUT! We luckily even won, and it was INSANE. Man, I LOVE hockey. We're going to try to get to a Playoffs game in the next couple of weeks. It won't be the Av's, but it will be a Playoff game! Woot!

*We were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited to watch General Conference and even more excited when they announced a temple in Fort Collins! It is now the perfect city, and hopefully we can move there before it gets translated :)

*We were even MORE excited when the Bubs actually slept throught the entire Sunday afternoon session, and we were able to watch the whole thing in peace! It was definitely the session we needed to watch, and can I just say, I LOVE Elder Holland? That man is just bursting with the Spirit!

Ok, so now some pictures of the past few months so you can be officially caught up with the Waite Clan:

This pic is from Jan. The Bubs and I went on a walk to feed the ducks at the duck pond. Little did we know that and entire legion of ducks, geese, and pigeons would be surrounding us begging us for food. I was nervous for our lives for a few seconds, but no people or fowl were hurt...

This was after a lot of the birds had left.... Sportin' the new suit from Tia Lou. This is his usual Sunday outfit now!

My handsome boys!

Me and my little man

My Valentine's Day cake-- definitely needed the dowels....

I'm into wreaths right now... here's the Spring/Summer one that I made for our door.

We got new bedding for our room. LOVE this beautiful set!

GO AV's!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were SO happy that we won this crazy game! Woot!

Ok, there's your fill of the Waites. We'll see you in another 4 months with more exciting updates :)

Limbo

Limbo-- I hate Limbo. I'm not just talking about the game (because, really, all the game is, is seeing who can break their back first) but my life being in LIMBO. HATE it. Unfortunately, I've been feeling like my life has been in limbo for the last... I don't know...8 years. Yep, ever since I left home. Every year I had to decide where I wanted to live, what job I was going to get, what roommates I wanted to be with. Then boys entered the picture and it was always, am I ever going to get a date? Is this THE ONE? Then it was, am I going to get into my major? What school will I get a job at? Can I really do this whole teaching thing? Then, we got married and a whole other side of limbo started. Where are we going to move? What school will we get into? Then I was pregnant. WOW-- limbo all over the place... for NINE MONTHS! What will our baby be? Will he be healthy? WHEN will this kid come out?? And now that we're getting close to being done with school-- limbo has entered into our lives once again....

Right now we're trying to start the search for jobs. (I know, WHAT?? Are we really almost done with school??) We've decided that we want to do a loan forgiveness program to help get us out of debt nice and quick. This means, however, that we will be living in the middle of nowhere for about 4 years. We applied to 3 different cities/towns already and have been rejected by 2. The only job we haven't heard back from yet, is the one that I want the most. It's in Thornton, Colorado and is a perfect place for me. It's a CITY-- yes, NOT in the middle of nowhere. It's close to the temple, it's close to the airport, and I enjoy the fact that it's only about an hour away from Fort Collins. All a win-win-win. But for some reason, Thornton is NOT getting back to us. What does this mean?? Do they want us, do they not? I just wish they would tell us, one way or the other and make the LIMBO leave! Ok, enough of the rant about limbo.

In other news, the Bubs turned 15 months last week and we got to go to the doctor. Here are his 15 month stats:

Height: 33 inches (90%)

Weight: 24 lbs (50%)

Head: I can't remember, but it's in the 90%

So again, he's a tall, skinny little man. He's perfectly healthy, doing well with his development and did ok with his shots. He now has added some animal sounds to his repitoire, and knows what a sheep, seal, lion, and kitty says. He's so smart :)

Well, someday, we're going to be out of limbo-- when that day comes, I'll be sure to let you know. But until then, get out a broomstick, play some music, and let the back breaking begin...

Christmas in Colorado!

Ok, last of three posts for the day-- HOORAY! So, to finish off our recap of 2010-- we can't leave out Christmas! In AZ, it's pretty hardcore to really get into the Christmas spirit (considering it's still about 85-90 degrees outside), so I really try to decorate as much as I can in the house and listen to Christmas music non-stop to try to get into the right spirit. It worked pretty well this year! Here's our little Christmas tree and the front room. We had to give back our 4 ft. tree this year because we knew that the Bubs would just be pulling it on top of himself the whole time. So we got a mini Christmas tree that could go on the top of entertainment center. Baby-proofing: CHECK!

We had the chance to go to the Mesa, AZ temple to see the lights before we left for Colorado. It was certainly a different experience from Temple Square. We weren't bundled and there was no snow!!!!

Now fast forward a few days. We got to go to Colorado for Christmas! It was a rough start getting there-- the transportation took a bit longer than we had planned, and the Bubs didn't sleep (for the whole two weeks), but other than that we had a FABULOUS time! The theme for this year's Christmas was a Medieval Christmas! We all became either knights or damsels in distress and it was AMAZING! We started out the festivities with (of course) Gingerbread Houses:

The Bubs is pretty excited about making Gingerbread Houses!

Sar's beautiful Cathedral.

Mom's outhouse... oh, I mean, Tower. Lord Albert's?? Prince Alfred?? Something similar to that....

Jonathan's impressive first go-around with gingerbread houses-- yep, it's a catapault!

My Dad not looking too happy with his efforts this year. He made the Round Table.

Me with our Christmas Coat of Arms... so clever!

Brett and his Sword in the Stone.

Dinner was AWESOME!! Mom and I made our first attempt at Cornish Game Hens (which turned out SUPER yummy), we found some amazing hearty bread, we made up our own

broth-y soup, and had our ale (of the ginger variety, of course!) We also had some dried fruit and nuts to round out the evening. Perhaps my favorite thing about this dinner was the gusto that the men-folk had about being medieval! Ripping into the Cornish Game Hens, burping quite loudly, and my favorite: my dad shouting "MORE GROG, WENCH!!!" It was quite the evening!

We, of course, ate by candlelight :)

The whole evening was SUPERB, and one of the best Christmases I've experienced! The activities included Jousting, Juggling, Castle Building, Catapaulting, a Search for the Holy Grail, and to finish up the evening: a Knight's Quest (which was an AMAZING obstacle course, which I will have lovely memories from for forever [thank you Sara for the falling pants, Mom for the bow and arrow shooting, and Dad-- just overall awesomeness.] Ahh-- what good times!

So yeah, Christmas was awesome. We got to have a fantastic Happy Duke Year with some pretty fantastic Balderdash-ness. (ZOOPS!) It was super hard to leave Fort Collins (since I don't know when I'll be back) but it was a wonderful 2 weeks!!!

A BIG Moment in Nik's Life

That big moment happened on December 11, 2010. I competed in a Sprint Triathlon, and guess what... I FINISHED! That was the goal from the start, so I was pretty excited to accomplish it. It was the craziest/hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I think it's comparable to child birth. I hated it while I was in the midst of it because it was SO hard and I was SO tired-- but man, crossing that finish line... there's not much that can compare! So, here's the story:

The race was up in Anthem, AZ-- so we had to drive about 25 minutes to get there. Luckily, my best friend, Sarah, took Bubsy for the day so we didn't have to worry about him. The race started at 11:00, but we got up there at 9:00 so I had plenty of time to rack my bike, get my timing chip, and get body marked. By the time the race started, I was so nervous, I thought I was going to be sick.

The first event was the swim. It was a 1/4 mile (which doesn't sound like a very long swim-- but try it-- and you'll feel how difficult it really is!) We were in lap lanes and doing a serpentine up and down the lanes. They were letting racers in the water every ten seconds. So picture this: you've got new swimmers coming in every ten seconds. You've got people swimming up the lane and people swimming down the same lane. Then you've also got people trying to pass other people in the same lane that people are going up and down in. Translation: CHAOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so scary and Brett said he counted 12 people in one lane at one time. So, needless to say, I couldn't get into a decent rhythm (which is the only way I survive swimming), therefore by the 4th lap (of 8)... I was DONE. I have never felt so tired in my life, and I still had 4 laps left. By the time I crawled (almost literally) out of the pool, I was devestated. It was only the first event and I could barely breathe-- or walk. So, as I'm almost in tears, I walk to the transition area to get ready for the bike. The whole time I was thinking, there is NO FREAKING WAY I can do the rest of this race. Luckily, Husband came to the rescue. He showed up and started stuffing Power Bar and Gatorade in my mouth and just kept saying, "Just get on the bike! Find a rhythm and go! You're going to do great!" Seriously, if it hadn't been for Brett pushing me, I STILL might be sitting in the transition area just crying.

But, I got on my bike and started to go. The bike was definitely my favorite event (and I discovered a serious LOVE for biking training for this beast) even though it was hard too. It was almost 13 miles and the first mile was straight uphill. WOW. On a mountain bike right after getting my toosh kicked in the swim-- it was a hard first mile. But then the 2 and 3rd miles were straight downhill, which was AWESOME! The bike went in a 4 mile loop that we did 3 times. By the third time doing the massive mile hill, I thought I was going to die. I figured I could get off of my bike and walk it up the hill faster than I was going. Not knowing if that were legal or not, I stayed on my bike :)

After the bike was the 5k. A 3.2 mile run that started out pretty well for me. Until I hit the first mile marker and got an intense cramp in my right quad. NOT FUN. So, I'm walking it out, when I realize that the next HUGE part of the route (it turned out to be a mile and a half) was straight uphill. Uhhh... yeah right. I was so tired, the thought of running uphill for a mile and half made me want to fall over. So, I walked. By the time I crested the hill, I decided I could start running again, and ran until I crossed the finish line!! WOW. What a crazy awesome experience!

I've decided that Triathlon's are a really good thing for me to be involved in. My goal is to do at least 2 a year (depending on where we live, and what races we can find) and another great thing about this experience is my love of biking. For Christmas, Brett got me a new bike that I LOVE. I just wish I could have had it for the Tri! It's blue, it's pretty, and it's as quick as lightning!

Ok, here are some pictures from the exciting event!

My number for the race!

Me and the Bubs before we left for the Tri.

Me and my training partner Linsey right before the race! How happy and naive we were!

Me running to the pool to start the race!!!!

How fast was that?? Here I am crossing the finish line!

Husband greeting me at the finish line!

Brett and me with the awesome sign he made for me!

Lins and I showing off our awesome numbers.

THE END.