Past, Present & Future

A friend of mine sent Marty and I this list:

Top 10 list of "Things Marty can do to help prepare Bri for the next 5-7 yrs":

10. Not answering Bri until she's yelled your name at least 5x before saying "what??? No, I didn't hear you!"

9. Start randomly "wiping out" for no apparent reason. The more dramatic the wipe out, the more fun. Boys LOVE to dive bomb the ground at any chance they get.

8. Use as much space as possible with everything you do. There are no boundaries to living space. Girls are cool with chilling in the corner to play but boys need the ENITRE room!

7. Hands are either down the pants or up the nose MULTIPLE times of the day.

6. Start maximizing the usage of sound effects in daily conversation.

5. Use the couch to builds forts.

4. While watching a good movie, randomly leave to act out the latest scene. Sound effect usage will be used heavily here!!!!

3. Leave the toilet seat down and pee not only on it, but also on the surrounding floor and walls.

2. Find a good cape or super hero outfit and practice "flying" around the house as you defend good vs evil.

1. Continue to tell her daily how much you love her because the boys do love their moms:) It just takes one "I love you mommy" to make everything all right in the world.

We had another nice weekend - Little Uno & Big Deuce swims were on Saturday. The water was surprisingly not too hot. I opted for the Little Uno this year as I have not been swimming a whole lot and just wanted to take it easy.

Yes, I am slow. Fellow Master's swimmer on Friday: "Wow, Bri. You got slow!"

Ummm, thanks?

Yes, I am starting to show. Multiple people at the swim: "I can see your belly" or "Yup, starting to show."

Again, thanks?

We had a bunch of friends/fellow athletes help us out on the volunteering front. THANK YOU!! Without all of you, these swims wouldn't go on. And I will not rant about competitors and t-shirts. I will not rant about competitors and t-shirts.

You'd think we were giving out gold bars or something.

Marty and many others went for a long bike ride in the 100+ degree heat. I went home and sat on the couch while watching the tour and holding Tassie's paw.

Saturday night = birthday party. Lots of fun.

Sunday I went for a bike ride on the bridle trails at Umstead with Marty (after he ran). Again, it was hot, but we went easy.

Sunday evening = trip to the Flying Saucer. Marty is closing in on his plate in the ring of honor. After drinking 200 different beers (counting 3 per visit), you are immortalized on the wall with a plate that has your name on it and a slogan of your choice. I think Marty is at 195 after last night.

Upcoming = VACATION!!! Last year we had a great time doing a bike tour along the Erie Canal in upstate New York, so we were thinking of doing another somewhere else. We discussed options and looked into several and decided on one in Rhode Island in late September. Literally the day before Marty sent in the deposit, we found out I was pregnant. Marty thought, no biggie, but I told him that with my limited knowledge on pregnancy, I didn't think doing a bike tour when I was 6+ months pregnant could be filed under 'things that are safe.' He didn't believe me, but he did believe google, so we bagged that trip.

Instead, we decided to go up to Boston since neither one of us have spent much time up in the Northeast. One our good friends and long time athletes also lives there so we'll get to spend time with her and her family. We're going to Cape Cod for a few days with a day trip to Martha's Vineyard, into Boston, then up to Maine for a few days. I can't wait.

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We started off the weekend with a nice bike ride and open water swim at Jordan Lake. The humidity was low which led to great midsummer weather - a nice reprieve from what we had been dealing with and what's to come this week. Marty and several others met at Inside Out and rode out to Jordan Lake then rode back. I opted to drive to Jordan Lake, ride the reverse route until I ran into the group and turned around. I did a short swim and then drove home. I'm still on my triathlon bike, and am still able to get aero but know these days riding outside are numbered.

This is the recreation area we swam at. I grew up right by the ocean and definitely miss being able to get to the beach in 10 minutes, so it's nice to have pseudo beaches and places to swim up here.

That day/night was very busy on the popularity scale as we had two parties to go to :)

The next morning I had planned on running but my hips were quite sore so decided to go for a nice walk with Tassie instead. Of all things pregnancy related, this is my only complaint at this point. I've been lucky with the pretty much non-existant nausea, no cravings...pretty much it's been business as usual except for the weight gain and how slow I am right now, but this hip ache is for the birds. It typically doesn't bother me during the day or when I run (jog) but at night sometimes laying down it totally sucks. I know it's due to a hormone called relaxin that is released to help loosen the joints down there. Pregancy and labor are truly amazing things with what your body does to prepare. Anywho, Tassie and I headed to Bond Park which is right around the corner from our house and did the lake loop. I took pictures along the way.

And last night I finished off a great weekend with Kari and Alysia; we met for ice cream and a movie (Bridesmaids - so raunchily hilarious!).

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BOY

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Pregnancy and Food

If you've ever been pregnant, you know that a lot of comparisons for how big your baby is, is to food. Last week it was a turnip. I wasn't even sure I could accurately picture the size of a turnip and can probably say that I've never eaten one before. But I found them in the grocery store, picked one up and thought, damn, no wonder my belly looks like it does. Most people say I just look like a normal person now. I've always had a very flat stomach; I just don't put weight on there. My thighs and butt are a different story! Well, I no longer have my flat stomach (because a turnip is in there).

This week it will be the length of a bell pepper.

And soon (fingers crossed), we can stop calling the baby 'it' because tomorrow we go in for the ultrasound that should show us if we're having a boy or a girl! There is always a caveat "as long as the baby cooperates" but I'm thinking we will make it cooperate. I am not above doing jumping jacks and handstands to get the boy/girl to change positions.

People ask, do you have any feeling of what it may be? Honestly, no. I hope that doesn't indicate any future mothering instincts but I really have no idea. My family tends to have girls (I'm one of three, my sister has 2 girls, and Marty's sister has 2 girls). There aren't any boys so not sure if anyone will know what to do with one of those. But apparently the sex of the baby is determined by the guy (i.e. the sperm). I did not do any legs in the air bicycles which is one of the crazy things people do to have a boy. I think.

Also, since my title is pregnancy and food, might as well talk about real food. I have no cravings. No pickles or midnight runs to a fast food joint. Seriously, I think I always crave junk (ice cream, cake, etc) that I feel no different. I'm trying not to overeat, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job with that. Some days I have a huge appetite but most days I seem to be eating around the same as I normally do. The big change is the drop off in my training, so don't worry about me not getting in enough calories. I have never had any issues with that. And I have put on around 6-7 lbs so far.

Yesterday I went out to Harris Lake to cheer everyone on at the Triangle Triathlon. This being a local race, we knew tons of people. It was lots of fun to go out there and chat with everyone. A lot of people had just found out that I was pregnant and it was funny to cheer for someone and for them to yell back to me, 'congratulations!' I also got to talk to several of the fast momma's after the race and they all gave me great advice and encouragment.

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Happy Tassie Sad Tassie

Happy Tassie is the normal around here. Here's a typical scene when we get home. Marty also plays quite a starring role in this video.



This is much better than scared of thunderstorms Tassie. Luckily, she doesn't try to tear things up like a lot of dogs, she just sits, cowers and shakes.

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17 Weeks

I decided to take another picture of me and my growing belly. Here I am at 17 weeks. I don't typically prance around in an outfit like this - I was trying to wear something that would give you the best look. I've also found that taking your own picture leads to some pretty ridiculous looking faces, so I conveniently cut my head off in this one :)

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Beech Mountain 5K

Race Report time! Yeah, so I'm writing a race report for a 5K. Races are few and far between for me right now (or really, nonexistent) so let me have my fun. On a related note, I'm actually not that burned up about not racing this year. Probably because I've been racing literally since I was 8 years old with only a few short breaks for some minor injuries. Right now, there are more important things going on with me and racing is not something that's near the forefront of my mind. I do still enjoy going out and cheering for everyone, and of course working out. I don't think I could never not workout.

Anyways, onto the race! Marty and I would be up in Beech Mountain for part of the 4th of July weekend visiting some family. Where is Beech Mountain? Next to Sugar Mountain. Ha, helpful, right? Sugar is near Boone so we were near Boone. But that only makes sense if you live in NC. Bottom line, we were in the mountains, and it was N-I-C-E.

My mom sent me a link to this small race and of course I knew Marty would want to do it since he loves doing races wherever we might be traveling. Since we were on a mountain, we knew it would be hilly. I've been to Beech Mountain a lot and couldn't really picture where we might run a semi-flat 5K, but whatever. I went on the website and they had some nice pictures of the race so I thought it would be all right. There was 1/4 mile that was flat and they took pictures of that 1/4 mile.

Liars
We knew the pictures were an exaggeration when we drove some of the course the night before. It was HILLY. Like crazy, wicked hilly. I've done hundreds of 5Ks (no joke) and this was by far the hardest course I've ever seen.

I was under strict instructions to keep myself under control. No problem. I have not been running very much (a 30min run is my typical jog at this point, and that's only 2, maybe 3 times a week) and absolutely no speed, unless you count the strides we do on Monday night. I promised Marty I would go easy. The hills were going to make my heartrate sky rocket and my plan was to jog up them and then fly down the downhills (most people don't know how to 'let go' on the downhill).

So that's what I did, and starting off slow worked to my advantage as almost all the girls who started off ahead of me (a lot) died a slow death and I picked them off one by one. Seriously, I was not running fast, the course just took it's toll on everyone.

There was this totally stupid steep hill on the golf course that had to be about a 20% grade. I baby stepped my way up and caught the 2nd place girl who had to stop and walk. And she was fit! I didn't actually know I was in 2nd place now and just kept it at my cruisey gear to the finish line.

Here are the results. So you see, I got 2nd place in a blazing time of 23:53. Not bad for 16 weeks pregnant! 7:41 pace in the hills and I felt fine. Not that Marty believed me since he was none too happy to see me finish that high up. I assured him over and over that I didn't push it, yes my HR was high but that was only because of the stupid hills and I wasn't overheating (the temps were very nice there).

Even the finish was a slight uphill

After Marty got done reprimanding me

The runners (this was my 12 year old niece's first 5K! Poor thing)



With our other niece Ashleigh, and her blue monkey

Contemplating something while holding the blue monkey

With my nieces (and Tassie in the corner)

And triathlons, take note: post-race they had pancakes (3 versions: plain, blueberry, and chocolate chip), bacon and sausage, several different fruit toppings and whipped cream, oj and coffee. That's a lot better than a bag of chips and some banana's!

It was a fun race with some great sponsors. They gave lots of goodies and the organizers did a great job for this first year event.

That night we ate barbeque and watched fireworks on the mountain with several hundred other people. It was great to sit outside for the holiday and not swelter. I was actually in jeans and a long sleeve t-shirt! The fireworks were fun but the whole time I could only think of poor Tassie and how scared she probably was. This is definitely her most hated holiday.

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