Storm #2

The second storm rolled in yesterday and luckily we only got about 8 inches of snow so far. The side streets are pretty much a disaster but the main roads by us have been plowed. We parked on the street in front of our house instead of in the garage in the alley just in case we need to get out. The bag is pretty much packed and the nursery is ready. Now we just wait!



We had a Dr's appointment yesterday. Things are progressing as they should be. I will be 37 weeks on Tuesday which is considered full term so we are hoping the baby stays put until at least then. I am hoping it stays put until at least the due date.



I am feeling fine. I am sort of sick of being pregnant at this point. Not that it has been a bad pregnancy - I just want to have a normal body again. I am researching treadmills but we don't really have room for one.

In the pictures you can see me working on our new couch with my belly sticking out :)

Christmas 2006

This was the first year that we did not go back to Canada for Christmas. We were sad not to spend the holidays with our families but we actually really enjoyed ourselves!


Geoff was obsessed with getting a Honey Baked Ham. When it started storming, he called the honey baked store to change the location to one closer to the house. We went on the 23rd to pick it up and the line was wrapped around the building! We were not about to wait for an hour to pick it up so we came back later. Luckily I was there as a voice of reason and did not let Geoff get the ham he had ordered because it fed 14 - 20 people! We downgraded it a little... it was still out of control!!!!


We went to mass and then had a feast! Andy, Barb and her dog Charlie joined us. It was so fun. We did not have the semi-traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner like usual but we did have pierogies that Geoff's mom had made and froze for us when she was here a month ago. I did cook enough butter and onions for an army. Geoff of course made plates for each of the dogs (sour cream and all). After dinner we played a few games, drank wine (well I had tea), ate a few dainties, and laughed a lot.

Christmas Day we took Barb to the airport for her home flight to Ohio. We came home and opened presents. We then made my favorite meal - WAFFLES!!!! Yummmm The dogs enjoyed it too :) We spent the rest of the day relaxing, napping, playing with our new gear, and eating left overs.

All in all, Christmas 2006 was one of my favorites!

Everyone Wants A White Christmas But This Is INSANE!

Wednesday morning, I was getting ready to go to work and I turned on the TV to watch the Today Show like I normally do. Instead of the Today show being on, it was non-stop local news covering the massive blizzard that was rolling into town. I had heard it was going to snow but I didn't think it was going to be a major blizzard. I was still planning on going into the office until I heard the news reporters say we are expecting 12 to 18 inches of snow in Denver. Geoff and I both decided to work from home. Thank goodness we did! We are completely snowed in. As of this morning, we have is 22 inches of snow in our yard. It is amazing.



One of the perks of working for the company that I work for is that we can work virtually (work out of our houses) without any problem as long as we have a high speed Internet connection and a phone. I have been working normally but Geoff's company shut down yesterday and are closed until Tuesday!


Geoff and the dogs spent about 3 hours shoveling and fetching. Geoff thew the tennis ball and Frisbee at least 200 times. Gus and Jake are COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED. One of the neighbors was nice enough to snow blow the sidewalk in front of our house but Geoff still had to do all the other walks. He backed the Touareg out of the garage because he wanted to go buy a new shovel (he really just wanted to use the 4x4) he of course got stuck. He was able to move the truck back in. We are hoping that someone blows the alley out or else Geoff is going to have some serious shoveling to do tomorrow.



Poor Barb, Rachel, and Andy were supposed to be flying home. Since DIA has been shut down and the entire city of Denver is a disaster zone, their flights have been cancelled. Rachel got a flight to DC on Sunday. Barb got one out on Monday. I think Andy is going to just stay in Denver. Geoff has upgraded our honey baked ham just in case they still can't get out and want to spend it at our house. The more the merrier!!!!



The crazy thing is, they are saying another storm is on its way in tomorrow! I have a few more things to buy so hopefully I can get out to the mall and the grocery store at some point before Sunday...


It is so weird actually being snowed in. If we want to go somewhere, we have to walk. Since we both grew up in Saskatchewan, Geoff and I are not strangers to snow or winter. Occasionally we would get a big snow (6" or so) but I don't ever recall getting a foot or more in a night. We would have 2 foot snowbanks but that was from weeks and months of snow accumulating.

It is beginning to look A LOT like Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are having fun at least. Oh if I go into labor, we are less then a mile from the hospital so we could make it there.

Baby Showers

I am very lucky to have such great friends and co-workers. A few weeks ago, I

For the work shower, about 13 ladies and I went to lunch at the local Italian restaurant. They had a great time telling me their horror stories about childbirth and child rearing. It was so fun. We ate lunch, opened presents, and of course had carrot cake (my FAVORITE!). Geoff and I received lots of blankets, burp cloths, teeny socks, onsies, toys, bibs, and things we don't even know what to do with yet.

On Sunday December 10th, Barb, Johanna, Alden, Rachel, and Kelly threw me a shower at Johanna's house. Those girls are absolutely amazing - they could have a party throwing business. It was so great to spend the afternoon with all my girlfriends with great food and cupcakes! YUMMY Again, Geoff and I received some amazing presents including our car seat, pack n' play, bath tub and all the tub accessories, books, baby bjorn, diapers, and more! We are so lucky.

Thank you everyone!

Decorating For Christmas

This will the be the first year that Geoff and I will not be spending back in Saskatchewan. I decided that we had to decorate the house and get a tree so it felt Christmas-y to us.



We decided against going to the mountains to one of those chop your own tree places (we will save that for a few years from now) and just went to the local grocery store to pick out a beauty. The last time we had decorated a tree was about 7 years ago so we didn't even remember what our decorations looked like!

Geoff put up the LED lights we bought last year in Canada. We love the blue.

Baby Classes

A few weeks ago, Geoff and I took some classes at the hospital we will be delivering at. We took an infant care class in which we learned how to change diapers, bath the baby, hold the baby, and what to expect in the first few months. It was good for Geoff and I who know nothing about babies. When we were learning how to change diapers, we were given a doll that had a diaper on it. We were curious to see if it was a boy doll or a girl doll. It turned out to be a girl doll so Geoff said that we are for sure having a girl now. He then wondered what if the doll being a black girl meant anything. I nearly peed myself laughing.

We then took the Childbirth Preparation class. This class taught us all about when to go to the hospital, what to expect in labor, how to breathe, and other things to do to get thru the labor. It was quite lovely when Geoff had to practice massaging my back and shoulders. We also toured the hospital - the birthing rooms are really nice and the recovery rooms seem quite nice too. There is an option to stay in the "suites" which run a mere $618+ per night (above and beyond insurance) - you get a chef and it is apparently just like a hotel room. We thought about it for about 1 minute and then decided that we will be staying in the regular rooms.

We both found it interesting that my due date was one of the soonest and I was the smallest pregnant lady in there. I was also the only person there that had a skull on my t-shirt :)

The Baby's Room

People were starting to have panicked looks on their faces when they would ask me "so do you have the room done yet?" and I would say "umm nope - we have not even started". To take care of that on the weekend of December 8th we went from not being ready at all to having a baby's room!

Barb moved into her rental house the first weekend in December. The next Friday (the 8th), I had someone come pick up all our old furniture that was in the room plus a few other things that we had that I decided needed to be tossed (nesting is in FULL effect). Later that morning, Geoff had made arrangements for painters to come give us estimates to do the baby's room and our hallway going to the basement. The first guy that showed up said he could paint that day so we said 'sounds perfect get started'. That weekend, the crib and changing table arrived as well so Geoff put that together too! We went from having NOTHING to having a baby's room in the matter of days! It is so strange. In the pictures you can sort of see the paint color - it is a tan/beige.

In the pictures you can see our new furniture, the paint color in the room, our new dining room table, and the bugaboo!

Baby Sitting

Eric and Jessica called Geoff in a panic - their baby sitter did not show up and they had tickets to the Who concert. They called Geoff and said "You need the practice - we will be at your place in 30 minutes with Ryder." Barb, Geoff, and I all just sat there staring at the baby wondering what we were supposed to do. We were all worried about what the dogs would do: Jake just smelled him, Gus would not stop licking him, and Charlie did not really pay attention to him at all.

Ryder is the most mellow kid ever. He just hung out with Geoff on the couch and FINALLY went to sleep. I went to bed long before Eric and Jessica came by to pick him up. Geoff was exhausted the next day :)

Thanksgiving

Geoff and I went to Scottsdale, Arizona to spend Thanksgiving with my dad and Deborah. We are lucky we made it to the plane... Geoff tested me to the max that day! Our flight was at 2PM and since Thanksgiving is the busiest time to travel of the entire year, I had hoped to be on our way to the airport by 12:30 at the latest giving us over an hour to get our bags checked, get thru security, and get to the gate before boarding at 1:30. Geoff and I discussed this plan the night before we left. Since I was working Tuesday morning, I was packed and ready to go Monday night. Geoff took the entire day off on Tuesday so he was planning on packing that morning. I was showered, dressed, and ready to go at 8AM and only needed to shut my laptop down before leaving. I even checked us in and printed off our boarding passes before 9AM. Geoff decides to sleep in until after 9:30AM. He is milling around the house, disturbing me while I am on a stressful conference call, messing around on his computer, drinking a pot of coffee, he runs to the post office, takes the dogs to the park, and then at 12:00 he decides it is time to shower and pack! I was livid and starving since I was hoping to grab something on the way to the airport. It is now 12:20 and there is nothing in his suitcase.
Since I practically have smoke coming out of my ears, he asks me to help him pack. He hands me the clothes for me to fold and put them into the suitcase. We are going for 3.5 days and he hands me 6 dress shirts, 7 t-shirts, 3 pairs of shoes, etc... I am screaming at him. He narrowed his stuff down to a reasonable amount. Barb is kind enough to drop us off at the airport so it is 12:45 and we finally are on our way. The planets must have been in perfect alignment because we made it to the airport and to the gate with enough time to eat McDonald's before getting on the plane :)

Our trip itself was really great. The weather was amazing (80's), we relaxed, we were in a carbohydrate coma the entire trip, and I took $80 off my dad while playing cribbage. Dad and Deborah enlisted Geoff's help with all things technical at their house. He picked out 2 massive lcd tvs and a new laptop for them to buy - it
is fun spending other people's money. On Thanksgiving, Dad made grandma's stuffing and cooked the turkey on the barbque! It was delicious. We also had mashed potatos, gravy, parsnips, peas, and cranberries. If this was not enough, after an hour or so, we had desert. Deborah makes amazing deserts and after having her pecan pie with ice cream the night before, we of course had massive pieces of pumpkin pie. I ate enough for 4 not just 2. Dad and Deborah spoiled us!

On the baby front, it has been moving a ton! It is bound to be a soccer player, runner, or something very active. Geoff and I just stare at my belly moving like it is possessed.

I finally picked out bedding and colors for the room. The walls will be tan and I have picked out a set of girls bedding and a set of boys bedding. Since the baby will be in the pram at first anyway, I won't order it until the baby is born. I am not one for themes so it is polka dots and stripes. It is by House Inc and is their Neapolitan style.

Belly Adventures in the UK

In order to better transition some of my work to my UK teammates, I traveled over to the UK for 4 days of face to face meetings. I left Denver at 6:30PM Saturday evening and arrived at Heathrow at 10:30AM Sunday. I took a taxi to Milton Keynes which is just over an hour North of London. I was completely delirious and was nervous I was going to get car sick but instead I passed out for the entire drive. I checked into the training center, took a nap, and headed to the mall of course. I bought a few things for the baby – the main thing being a massive stuffed sheep for the nursery.

I worked out of Kent Hill for Monday and then traveled another two hours North to Yarnfield where we have a training center. I stayed in this gorgeous bed and breakfast in this quaint English town near Stone. I kept commenting how gorgeous it was and the boys kept saying “it isn’t gorgeous – it is normal”. The brilliant green country side had beautiful farm houses with sheep and cows, gorgeous Tudor houses, stones covered in moss, and the friendliest people you can imagine. Everyone is extra nice to the American lady with the “bump” as they like to say.

The food here is very “interesting”. White pepper repulses me and it seems to be in everything. On the first night my dinner was completely coated in it so I just had chocolate cake. One lunch, my co-worker had a baked potato with a scoop of tuna salad on top of it! I was horrified and when I told them we put sour cream, chives, cheese and bacon bits on our “jacket” potatoes they were completely grossed out. They drink horrible instant coffee all day and the boys eat crisps (potato chips) for breakfast. I really enjoyed my rhubarb flavored yogurt, Twirl chocolate bars, and of course salt and vinegar crisps. One night I had fish and chips with mushy peas in an old English pub and a few spoonfuls of a traditional English desert sticky toffee pudding. I am guessing it was the sugar but the baby was seriously doing painful aerobics for a several hours!

The trip was very productive. It was great to finally meet my three teammates whom I talk to on the phone several times a week. We were able to accomplish a lot of work and it was nice to get to know the guys on a personal level. Their English sense of humor is so fun and being able to show them how to do things in person made such a huge difference.

On my flight home I managed to have three seats to myself so I was able to keep my legs elevated the entire flight. This helped to minimize the insane leg swelling I had on the flight out. I had no jet leg on the way to the UK with the exception of the first day being a disaster. I am interested to see how I recover on the return flight….

The Third Trimester!

We had our 28 week appointment today. Everything looks great according to the Dr and I am feeling totally fine. I am going to the UK on Saturday so I had to get paperwork stating that it is ok for me to fly. I start going every 2 weeks for appointments now. My belly has most definately gotten bigger. The baby moves a lot and sometimes hoofs me in the ribs which is the strangest feeling. I am not sleeping like a complete log anymore which is expected. The Dr told me I will start feeling exhausted again... hopefully it is not as bad as it was in the beginning.



Nesting is in full effect. We bought a new couch and purchased slip covers for some of our other furniture. I have hauled out a ton of clutter and we have been selling some stuff on ebay too. We don't have a lot of room so we have to clear out some stuff so we can fit all the new stuff.

Barb moved back to Denver! She is staying with us until she and her lab Charlie find a place. It is dog mania here - we love it.

Gus posed for the belly shot picture with me but Jake was too busy watching out the window for squirrels...

3 Fast Chicks & A Pregnant 1

Sunday October 15th was the annagural Denver Marathon. I convinced three of my girlfriends, Alden, Kelly, and Johanna to run the relay with me. It was fantastic. Our team name was 3 Fast Chicks & A Pregnant 1. Apparently at the awards ceremony they announced our name as one of the most unique. We should have had t-shirts made up especially since I got a ton of strange looks from the crowd.

We placed 8th out of 55 women's teams. The girls ran their lungs out to make up for my slowness - which was actually faster then I thought I would run (3.8 miles at 10:24 mins per mile)


Alden 5.8 miles in 48:20 at an avg of 8:20 per mile
Dori 3.8 miles in 39:32 at an avg of 10:24 per mile
Kelly 8.1 miles 1:04:47 at an avg of 8:00 per mile
Johanna 8.5 miles 1:09:29 at an avg of 8:10 per mile

We had a blast and are already trying to pick our next marathon relay to do!

First Baby Purchase

Everyone has been asking us:

• Have you bought anything for the baby yet?
• Do you have the room ready?
• Do you know how you are going to decorate?

Basically the answer is "no" to all of those quesitons. We have started casually browsing at a few things (cribs, dressers, and bugaboos) however we have not yet decided on anything until the other day when Geoff and I came across this little outfit that we HAD to have.

Uncle Glen will be so excited :)

The Baby Mobile!

So I have been talking about getting a new car for years now and since we were only a few short weeks away from having to get a crane to lift me in and out of the Integra, we decided it was time to get a more family friendly car. After looking and drooling for 2 years over these cars, we purchased a 2006 Volkswagon Touareg V8. It drives like a dream. There is plenty of room for Gus and Jake in the back and baby in the back seat.

We posted the Integra on Craig's list and no less then 20 minutes later, we got a call. The guy came by the next day and purchsed the vehicle. Everything worked out perfectly.

This baby is going to be riding in style.

As you can see, my belly is starting to pop out now. It freaks me out when I see myself in the mornings. Geoff fondly refers to it as my Buddha belly. At work, people who don't know for sure that I am pregnant are starting to look at me with a raised eyebrow - in a few more weeks I am sure I will look REALLY pregnant.

I ran the Race for the Cure 5KM run on Sunday. I was slow as heck (nearly 34 mins) but I ran the whole thing! This weekend I am doing a 3.8 mile leg in the Denver Marathon relay - I am super excited.

I am going to try and post more often from now on - and post more pictures especially since things seem to be changing a lot.

Nothing Like A Trip To Wisconsin To Balloon Up

On September 8th I went to Madison, Wisconsin to cheer on Barb during her Ironman. It was an incredible weekend. Barb finished the race and to make it harder then it already is, it was a brutal day – it poured rain the ENTIRE TIME but she toughed it out for 15 hours and 49 minutes and crossed that finish line with a huge smile on her face.

I think it was the lack of sleep and being on my feet for 20 hours and eating Wisconsin food and flying that made me swell up like a balloon when I got home. Woke up two days after I got home and my face was swollen, my fingers and toes were like little sausages, and I just felt horrendous. Being a complete lunatic, I weighed myself. I was up 7 lbs from less then a week before! I just about died. I of course did the math thinking if I continued to gain weight at a rate of 5 lbs a week, I was going to put on 90 more pounds before this baby was born! It is nearly two weeks later and I am finally caught up on sleep, hydrated, and exercising again. I weighed myself yesterday and to my relief, I am back down a pound or two over my pre-Wisconsin weight! WHEW

Belly Shot at 20 Weeks

Ok many people have been asking me for a belly shot - here is the first one at the half way point. I am sure it is going to change quite a bit in the near future but for now, you still can't really tell a whole lot yet. I can still wear my jeans - they may not be the comfortable pants I own at the moment but I still wear them!

20 Week Ultrasound

Today we had our 20 week ultrasound and everything was looking fantastic according to the doctor. Geoff now thinks it is a girl not a boy because he is apparently he is an expert ultrasound reader (eventhough he was asking the dr if this one thing was the heart but it was the baby's face....).

During the ultrasound the baby kept putting its hands over its face - it was super cute. It was moving around like crazy which I hope is not a sign of the future! We did NOT find out the sex but we could have. It was tempting but I am a sucker for surprises.

Here are some pictures of the little one:

Side view of the body with hand up
It's Feet!

Another view of the side profile

One Year Anniversary

Sunday was Geoff and my one year wedding anniversary - which is not really that big of a deal considering we have been together for like 10 years now! We started celebrating on Saturday evening. Geoff and I have a rule that whoever is planning our celebration has to surprise the other person with the event - ok this is always dinner but one person doesn't know where you are going. Geoff took me to this adorable restaurant in a Victorian house in the Highlands area of town called the Highland Garden Cafe. Unfortunately it had been raining all day so we could not sit in the courtyard but we had a perfect little table by a window. The highlight of the evening was me having my first red glass of wine in four months! It was fantastic. The official present for 1 year is paper so I have ordered to small paintings for Geoff. I was presented with a piece of paper from the INS saying we have to go get finger printed and photographed on Friday which is a huge deal as it is one of the last steps to us finally getting our greencards.

On our actual anniversary we had an amazing day. We got up and took the dogs to the mountains and we went on a hike just outside Keystone. The hike was supposed to be 6 miles round trip however since we drove Geoff's sports car and could not go on this horrible 4x4 road, we had to park at a different trail head and hike 2.1 miles to the start of the hike. Once we started the actual hike it was incredible! It was of course a gorgeous Colorado day and we were surrounded by 14,000 foot mountains on the back side of A Basin ski resort. The dogs went crazy smelling everything, chasing animals, and swimming. The hike finished after this crazy climb over a talus slope at which it ended at an emerald lake between several mountain peaks. The water was frigid and of course Gus and Jake did not care. They were swimming like little kids. Geoff decided that he rarely gets the opportunity to swim with the dogs so he jumped in! It was insanity. His swim lasted about 45 seconds but probably felt like 3 minutes. The dogs loved it. It was not until hike down that you realize how hard of a climb we had. Since we had only planned on hiking 6 miles not 10 miles, we had only brought a granola bar for the top so needless to say we were STARVING and delirious by the end. We were also trying to beat the thunderstorm that was making its way towards us.

As Johanna put it, "it was our 1st anniversary to celebrate and our last anniversary for a long time without having to find a babysitter."

Waiting for movement...

So somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks you are supposed to feel the baby move. Since week 15 (since our baby is of course going to be an advanced child) I have been trying to feel this.

I getting frustrated because:
A) I don't know what I am supposed to be feeling
B) If the baby is growing faster then the average baby, then why can't I feel it sooner
C) I am ultra impatient (like father like daughter)

I am now at 17 weeks and 4 days and still nothing. Whenever I feel something, it usually ends up being hunger pains... I don't think we have an ultra lazy baby because last week at the doctor's appointment it was moving around like crazy when we were trying to hear the heart beat.

Patience is probably one of the virtues that being a parent will teach me... or more likely drive me insane.

HURRY UP... please

Baby's Second Race - Rattlesnake Sprint

This morning was my second sprint tri this pregnancy. I am now over 17 weeks and still feeling quite good. The course for this race is significantly more challenging then the race a couple of weeks ago. The location can be very hot and windy at times. Johanna and I were praying that it would not be 100F today... We got our wish. We woke up and it was RAINING! It rarely rains in Denver - in fact this is the second Saturday of the entire summer that we have had rain. At first I was nervous about riding my bike on slick roads however once I got out there and it was only misting, there was no way I was not going to race.

I squeezed into my wetsuit - thankfully this will be the last time I wear that horrible thing this year. I have a hard enough time getting into it normally let alone when I am gaining weight! I felt like a cabbage roll... As we waited for the person by person swim start (5 seconds apart) it started pouring. We were miserable and could not wait to get into the water so we could warm up. The water was super choppy so when you went to breathe you would drink a mouthful of water instead. It was only a 500 yard swim so it was over very quick (~12 mins).

T1 was humorous. They had wetsuit strippers so these 2 girls about 13 years old are trying to peel me out of this rubber suit! Lovely. I then wasted time getting my jacket out of my backpack, trying to get it on, and then deciding not to wear it because it had stopped raining. Yeesh I could have been much faster there...

I finally start the bike. The course is very hilly and on the first hill I dropped my chain. I was so annoyed when the 5 ladies I had just passed, I flew past me as I fixed my chain. Then I could not get into my large chain ring. I just decided that I was not supposed to go as fast as I could on the bike - and I was ok with it. On the second half of the bike I finally coaxed my chain into the large chain ring and started to make up some time. I thought the course was only supposed to be 12 miles but according to my bike computer it was over 14 - not a big deal but still...

The run was fun actually. The course was also slightly hilly which makes it a little more interesting. My running has gotten slower since the pregnancy but I was faster on this course then the last one - I averaged 9:10 minute miles.

My final time was 1:38:22 which I was happy with. Johanna did not do the last tri with me. She and I are ultra competitive and I was positive she beat me with all the mishaps I had. We compared our unofficial times and I believe I beat her by 20 seconds :)

This is my last tri for the season. I need to figure out what to tackle next...

16 Weeks and the Pea In The Pod

In the past few weeks I have personally noticed my belly pooching out. According to all the websites I have been looking at the baby is somewhere between the size of an avocado, plum, peach, and a softball so it makes sense that something is starting to look different. I decided to get on the scale the other day and I have officially entered the next set of 10 pound increment on the scale... eek! I still fit in all my regular clothes but they are getting a little snug. I decided to go to the mall and buy some new pants. Since I don't want to wear maternity clothes just yet so I was going to just buy regular pants in larger sizes. I went to four different stores and tried on literally 20 pairs of pants. They all looked just sloppy. After walking out of Anthropologie nearly in tears, I decided to take the plunge and go to Pea In The Pod just to see what maternity clothes are currently out there.

When I walked into the store, the sales women was super nice. I told her I wanted to try on only pants that don't look like maternity pants. She said she could do that for me and promptly put 12 pairs of pants in the change room. I must say trying on maternity pants is quite the experience - some look absolutely hideous. The one nice thing is that in maternity clothes I am a size small (well for now anyway). I took the plunge and bought my first two pairs of maternity pants which was a big milestone for me - it was hard but inevitable. The next big mileston willbe wearing the pants out in public...

Now if I keep shopping at Pea In The Pod for all of my clothes, I will spend my entire clothes budget (like I really have one) in about two months! I told Geoff that luckily I didn't buy the maternity Citizen's that were nearly $200 and he said that I should save those for a day that I am feeling really crummy. I knew I married that boy for a reason :)

Baby's First Tri

This past weekend, at the end of my my 15 th week of pregnancy, I raced in the Tri for the Cure Sprint Triathlon in Denver. It consisted of a 750 yard swim, 12 mile bike, and 3 mile run. This is my fifth year of racing tri's yet it has been a couple of years since I have raced a Sprint. I forgot how much fun they are. I had a great time.

Now when I say raced this weekend, I want to clarify that I am a middle of the pack racer (I hope to place in the top 25% to 50% of my age group) so I am more of a participant then I am a racer. My biggest competition tends to be with my own head. I have not been really training for any races at all. After completing the 5430 Half Ironman last summer I have been burned out on tri's. It is not really the tri's themselves but rather the commitment of training for them. For those of you who are not familiar with Tri's a Half Ironman consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run so as you can imagine it took a lot of time to train for. Since last August, I have been running regularly, occasionally biking, and rarely getting in the pool. A month ago, one of my best friends, Barb, came to Denver from Dallas for two weeks to train at altitude for Ironman Wisconsin. During her visit, I got excited about tri's again so I decided that to sign up for a couple of Sprints this summer.

The worst part of a tri is getting up early to get to the race. I have learned many valuable lessons from one of my coaches and idols, Celeste Callahan and one lesson that I have taken to heart is that I must be at the race waiting for the transition area to open so I can get a good transition spot. On Sunday, the transition area opened at 5:30AM so I planned to be parking my car by 5AM. When you set your alarm clock to get up at 3:45AM you know you are doing something crazy especially when at one point in my life coming home at 3:45AM would not be a big deal. I was parking my car at 5:02 and as I was gathering my gear together my friend Emily was making her way to the transition area too - another good listener of Celeste. We rode our bikes in the dark down to the transition area and waited in line with all of the other smart ladies in our CWW Tri club. Emily and I got our transition spots and settled in for our race to start. It was 5:35 and I didn't start until 8AM so we had an hour and a half to spare before we had to warm up. Waiting for the race to start you meet a lot of great women and spend a lot of time standing in line for the port-a-potty especially when there are over 2500 women competing in the race. You end up hearing way more information from perfect strangers then you ever cared to know about if they were successful going to "the bathroom" or not.

Finally it is time to head to the swim start. There are 15 swim waves a head of me. Emily is in the wave before me so we wish eachother luck knowing we will see eachother out on the course somewhere. I am waiting with all the other women in red swim caps watching hundreds of women come out of the water. Being pregnant has made me more emotional so seeing the excitement and sense of accomplishment on the ladies faces as they came out of the swim made me cry. I saw another spectator crying and that made me cry more.

I am always nervous for the swim because it is my weakest of the three sports. I just try to get thru it without any incidents. With less then a minute to go before our wave start, I looked over and saw Celeste and my other coach Yoli give me the thumbs up. I was so ready. The swim started and I felt good. I had consistent breathing and focused on good stroke technique. Since I had only been in the water eight times this year, I expected my swim to be about 20 minutes but to my delight it was just over 17 minutes. I got out of the water and saw Celeste's smiling face. I yelled "It was way better then I thought!" and ran out of the water.

The T1 transition was far but all went smoothly except I could not get my arm out of my wetsuit. I was thinking to myself, "riding my bike in my wetsuit would not be easy so I better get this thing off!" I managed to get unstuck and once I got on the bike I felt very strong. That course is really fast and easy so I was hoping to average 18 mph and ended up averaging 18.65 mph which is my fastest bike speed in a race. T2 went very smoothly and I headed out on the run.

Since the pregnancy, my running has gotten slower. I have asthma so I have always had breathing problems and it is not really my lungs that hurt - my body is just slower and I think I have finally accepted that. I focused on moving my arms and legs as fast as they would take me and that was around a 9:30 mile. I was secretly hoping to pull off 9 minute miles but pushed as hard as I could and I am completely ok with it.

As I crossed the finish line the ultra competitive side of me wanted to yell out, "Hey guess what, I'm pregnant and I rocked!" however in all honestly, I was so proud of all of the women out there participating in the race that it really didn't matter. The effort it took for me to complete a Sprint Tri being 4 months pregnant is nothing compared to how difficult it was for some of those women to walk their first mile. Congratulations to all the women who raced yesterday - you are an inspiration.

Race Results
Swim 17:30
T1 04:01
Bike 38:36
T2 02:36
Run 28:54
TOTAL 1:31:40

Rank 67 out of 387 in women aged 30 to 34
Rank 381 out of 2571 participants

The Alien Inside

These pictures are from 6 weeks ago but better late then never I suppose.



On June 16th we had our first appointment with the doctor. During that visit, Geoff got to witness a womens complete physical and to our surprise we had our first ultrasound. Up until this point the whole pregnancy was a complete mystery since I was basically feeling completely normal. In the back of my head I didn't believe it was for real and I think it was the same for Geoff too. When we saw the little alien on the screen, we were both in shock. It was really amazing. You could see this little blob and a beating heart. I was more in shock when the NP said that she was going to make sure there was only one baby... the thought had not even crossed our minds!

As you can see here, the baby was measuring exactly as it should for 8 weeks and 3 days.





Our next ultra sound is on September 6th where we see the 3D ultrasound and they do all of the checks to make sure everything has formed correctly. That will be a very scary yet exciting day!

really crummy day

I am blaming it on the pregnancy. I had a horrible day yesterday. It all started at about 4AM when we woke up to our dog Jake barfing on our bedroom floor. Lovely. I then proceeded to skip my morning run because I was too tired. When it was time for me to get ready, I felt all swollen and bloated. I put too much hair gunk in my hair so it looked horrible. My eyeliner smudged all over so that looked ridiculous. Then I got dressed and HATED how I looked. Instead of being comforting, my husband took one look at me and said "I think it is that ugly shirt". Instead of crying I just ripped the shirt off (buttons went flying) and changed completely 3 times. I had a crummy day at work but at least I had a hair appointment so that helped a little. After grumbling at my husband all night, I was asleep by 10PM and feel like a new person today. I have never felt like such an emotional wreck so I am blaming this one on the pregnancy for sure.

My Pregnancy Blog

I am currently 13 weeks pregnant and have had no problems thus far. I have had no morning sickness. I have been tired but really that has been the worst of it. I may be forgetting how grouchy I was for the first few weeks but I am sure Geoff is not. On the other hand, Geoff, is quite excited that the "titty fairy" has arrived... which personally I think is unruly but significantly less painful then it originally was.

I went to the Dr last week for our 12 week appointment and the Dr told us that the baby is the size of 14 week baby which doesn't mean the baby will be born early - it will just likely be larger then average. That really is not what a first time mother wants to hear!

I am not telling my co-workers yet because we are about to go thru a re-org in the next three weeks. I hope I can keep my belly hidden for another month!