Major life update- shortened version

So, if I haven't talked to you on the phone in a while, then you don't know 2 things about me:

1. I've been diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis- hypothyroidism.
2. I'm going to school for a BSN and graduate in August 2013.

I could really leave my life update to that. It encompasses about everything that has been going on with me right now.

Obviously I have about a 10 mile long story that I could tell about my diagnosis which happened back in April 2012. I won't bore you with all the details, but anyone that has been diagnosed with this or any other auto immune disorder can attest to the frustration and unsurety that accompany about the year before a firm diagnosis. We are still trying to get a correct medication dose. I have also gone gluten-free now (as of 2 weeks ago). It was recommended to me by two doctors, so why not try it!

In terms of school, I figure that 3rd times a charm right? or three strikes you're out, which ever one works fine :). It is at UC and is an accelerated program (14 months for a BSN). It's been fun, horrible, amazing, and frustrating all in one.

Scott and I also recently went to my family's lake house in Maine. We also went to Sweden and Portugal. Both were amazingly fun except our camera broke!

We also just got iphone 5s this week because we both lost/ruined our phones. We made a big upgrade, but I am LOVING it. Especially Seri.

Muncie 70.3 2012= 37.2

To preface this for those of you who aren't triathlon nerds which my sister is slowly turning me into, here are the distances I'm talking about...
Half Ironman also called 70.3 because that is the total number miles you go that race(yes the full is double everything here)= 1.2mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 run

Olympic distance= .93 mile (1.5k) swim, 25 mile (40k) bike, 6.2 mile (10k) run

This is me setting up transition at the crack of dawn.

T1 I think.

I'm going to say sorry now that this isn't a condensed race report. This was my race I was training for this whole year up to this point, hence it was pretty important to me. I won't feel bad if you skim it, heck you don't HAVE to read it at all.

I signed up for Muncie (IN where Ball state is) 70.3 back in September 2011. Back when I signed up I had been off of crutches a week or two and needed some encouragement that only can come from signing yourself up for a crazy race. I was finally jogging (I never say I jog, but it was SLOW) in January 2012. In february I was able to RUN 4 miles all together (big accomplishment). I was determined not to get injured through this training process, so I built up my base very slowly. I didn't have a training plan, just a build my base plan. I went with my sister to Saint George Ironman in May (where she rocked it and was a huge inspiration to me). We had a long car drive back and planed the next 10 weeks of training up to race day.

So, we'll skip ahead to race week. Obviously I religiously checked the weather in Muncie as soon as it was on the 10 day forecast. In the beginning it was lower 90's, humid, but doable. Thursday it looked bad! Upper 90's, humid all day, and starting out pretty nasty. The race team decided to move the start to 6:30am instead of 7:00am. Friday I was in clinical lab (nursing school stuff) when I got a voicemail from my sister. I listened to her say that she heard a rumor that Muncie got shortened! I was so sad/angry/ disappointed/stressed, but decided to find out on my own. I got my computer out and couldn't get the internet to work, I tried all 4 computers that I could find and couldn't get signed in properly. I probably looked like a mess, which seems to be a common theme in this story. So, when all else fails... call mom. I asked her to sign into facebook, and check muncie's page. 14 minutes ago muncie 70.3 posted that they had to shorten the race to a 1 mile swim, 30 mile bike, and 6.2 (10k) run. This is practically an olympic distance triathlon (see above distances)

So, I never finished this post and guess I will do my best to remember what else I was going to put.

Our hotel was nice enough and even though I had a ton of homework to do, I wasn't about to be able to concentrate on it the night before a race! We went to bed a lot later than I normally would before a race and had to be up at the crack of dawn to get to the location on time (before they started to shut roads down). I set up my transition area and then decided to ask someone to borrow their bike pump. Well, that was a disaster! The pump completely deflated my tire, then the girl said, oh ya sometimes that happens for some reason. I think she was trying to sabotage me (same age group). Well no one else around me had a pump so I walked up the row of bikes and asked a random guy. Luckily his pump worked and I was able to get more pressure into the tire. I wasn't about to risk it on my other tire and so just returned the pump counting my lucky stars.

Scott and I went down to the swim after going to the bathroom 5 more times. My wave lined up and they had us gradually wade into the water. I'm sure we were all standing in so many people's pee right there where everyone stood right before they started swimming. We went off and I tried to find someone's feet but just like my previous race in Muncie, you couldn't see anything infront of you. It was an uneventful swim for the most part. I swam ontop of several people before I realized I was on top of them. This race had a wave start which means that different age groups go at different times. I hate it but they usually put the slow people (older men and women) first and then faster ones after them. So, the whole time you are swimming through all these slow swimmers. It's dangerous and annoying. I came out alive, but not too happy with how I felt my swim went. I was running up the transition are looking for Scott to tell me what place I was (we had different colored caps for different waves). He told me I was the 8th blue cap to come out. Ouch! 8th, I knew my swim was bad, but THAT bad!

My transition really stunk too. I bought a squirt top water bottle that I could throw away to have on the bike. My other bottle on my bike had some of my nutrition in it. I walked my bike out of transition, mounted, started down the hill, and my one and only bottle of water fell off my bike. I couldn't go get it, there was too much traffic, and it wasn't worth my time. So, I just said to me self, I hope the first aid station is soon! They switched around the aid stations so I had no idea where the first on was.

Luckily it wasn't too much later till I got some water. I was cruising along and feeling so so good. I kept passing people that were in my age group and some people who I thought were, but I couldn't tell because they had scrubbed their age off the back of their leg (really cheap if you ask me, I guess they just don't think they can handle the competition, weak sauce!). I was so mentally in the race and feeling so good I completely forgot to take ANY nutrition or electrolyte pills till less than 10 minutes on the bike! Opps! I jammed as much nutrition into me as I could, but couldn't get much in right before the run.

My second transition was just as slow as my first. I had to run into the portapotty and didn't even bother to lock the door. I was off for the 10K run. I got out of transition right with another girl. She had scrubbed her calf pretty good so I thought it said 36 not 26. She started taking off! I thought, I can't let a triathlete beat me running! I'm a runner! Well, our first mile was too fast for either one of us, but as the race panned out it turned out that it was several minutes too fast for her and only 30 seconds too fast for me. It confuses me when people take off like that. I hit the turn around spot feeling good, but knowing I wasn't running as fast as I could/should. I hit the final turn with about 1.5 miles to go. I was just wanting the finish line, I could tell I was getting some heat exhaustion. I saw Scott with his cute signs for me (what a trooper to come all the way out to the race and not see the finish). I always want him a little ways out from the finish because that is when I actually need the cheering, not at the finish. Well, I  had a great finish, probably because I didn't run hard enough. I didn't take any nutrition in on the run either, so I think my total calorie intake during the race was somewhere around 100 if I was lucky, probably more like 50.

I immediately started walking down the finish line to find Scott. We found each other and got food and started the waiting game. We knew my place into the bike transition, but I didn't know if I passed anyone on the run. I went up to the results after a while and saw that it said I was first in my age group! I didn't trust it of course, the results looked a little weird so I didn't want to get excited before hand. It ended up that I did win my age group, which qualified me for the world championships (I turned them down because the race is on Sunday-very hard). I beat a pro triathlete! I felt pretty happy with the race overall.

Several weeks ago, back in August, I signed up for Muncie 2013! So excited to hopefully get to do the whole race next year. It will be lots harder to train because of school, but I'm still excited to be able to.

Picture Update

It been a while since I've done a real update of our lives. So, here's an update in picture form...

I found this potato and it was too cute not to carve a quick eye and mouth into. 

This was our valentines day dinner. Scott made a delicious chicken and rice with fruit and salad. It was very nice to come home from work with dinner on the table. (Since I came home from work at 6:45 or later)

Scott and I did a shamrock shuffle on Saint Patrick's day weekend. I won some money which is always nice and almost unheard of for a 5k race.

This was my first attempt at making corned beef and cabbage. I actually like it and never had it growing up since my mom hates it. Her birthday is on Saint Patrick's day so she always had it as a birthday meal.

The Childress moved away to California!!! So sad, we miss you guys a ton!

We went rock climbing at Red River Gorge with the Scouts in our ward.

One of my coworkers lives on a farm and exchanged goods with us! I made some soft pretzels (that I now sell) and she gave us a ham!!! YUM!

My First Triathlon

The day started out way too early (4 am). I already hadn’t been getting a ton of sleep so I wasn’t as excited for this race as I felt I should have been. Scott was a sweet heart and drove the whole way to Muncie so I could at least attempt to sleep. I ate my breakfast of champions on the way to the race (honey comb-generic version). Getting marked up and setting up transition took a lot longer than I thought it would.

So the start of the race…. We all went down to the beach and I started with the first group that was comprised of people that thought they could place in the top 5 in their race, about 40 people. I was the only one in the group that didn’t have a wet suit on, I just wore a tri suit of sorts. Well they shot a cannon off and we ran into the water and started swimming.

My sister told me to get on someone’s feet and go with them. Well, that was a great plan and I really tried to do that, but I couldn’t see my hand in the water nonetheless someone else’s feet. So I decided I guess I’m on my own for this. The way down was great. I was spotting well and swimming well. I made the first turn and went the 150m and made the second turn. After the second turn I thought, “where am I supposed to go!!!” I couldn’t see a single buoy in front of me because the sun was so bad. I saw someone’s arm come out of the water and went in that direction. I kept swimming and kept not seeing any buoys. I finally stopped for a little bit and looked around for a buoy and saw one 50 meters to the right of me. Oops! I was supposed to be on the other side. So I swam back out and tried to spot more buoys and kept swimming. I had to stop several more times to try to see the beach. I finnaly saw the big buoy and the dock and then I felt the ground with my hand.

Transition was pretty good. It was a long up hill run to get into transition. Scott stood next to me cheering me on the whole time. I was off on the bike! Ever since I have had aerobars put on my bike, I’ve fallen in love with it. The bike was a two loop course that other described as hilly, and I would describe as not bad. My first loop was about 35 minutes and Scott almost missed me since he wasn’t expecting to see me. On my second loop I encountered a guy who really didn’t want to be chicked J.  I was probably happiest about how my bike went. It was a little windy and not completely flat and I still went faster than what I had set my goal as.

T2 wasn’t as good. I didn’t have it all lined out in my mind so I was a little flustered when I was leaving. I was going to go to the port-a-potty until I realized that it was the opposite way of where I was supposed to run and decided that the 75 meters was just too far. The run was what I was most disappointed with. I should have gone faster and could have. I just was so nervous about running out of energy and going out too fast. My last mile was faster than 6:10 pace and my last .2 was faster than 5min pace (up a hill). So, I had a lot left in the tank, lesson learned for next time!

I did end up winning my first triathlon, which felt pretty good! Next on the list July 7^th Muncie Half Iron Man! 

Bad Connections, Busses, and "Unanswered" Prayers

Here is a rare one from the other half of this blog...

A few weeks ago, I took Jocelyn to her physical therapy down at the University of Cincinnati. I drove down to the loading docks by the football field and sat in the car while she went in. Needing desperately to get work some done, I pulled out my laptop and tried to connect to UC’s Internet.

No luck.

I tried again. Still no luck. I restarted my computer hoping that would resolve the issue. No luck. I did everything I knew how to and still had no luck. I was able to get the Internet just fine on our iPod, but had no luck on my laptop. I said a quick prayer asking Heavenly Father to help me connect to the Internet so I could get the work done that I needed. After the prayer, full of faith, I tried to connect to the Internet one more time. And you know what happened?

No luck.

Dejected, I figured this was just one prayer that wasn’t going to be answered. About that time, I heard a beeping noise behind me in the distance. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a large tour bus backing up into the loading docks. I could see where it was headed, and I didn’t like it. The bus kept backing up closer and closer until it had the car completely blocked. The driver must have seen our car and backed up a little farther until we could get out. I looked back to make sure we had enough space to back out and noticed, right at eye level just outside our window, a sign on the side of the bus that said, “Free Wifi Hotspot”. I checked my computer and, sure enough, I was in luck.

Those who say that God doesn’t answer prayers aren’t looking hard enough or don’t give Him enough credit. It could have been easy to write that off as a nice coincidence, but I don’t choose to look at it that way. God does hear and answer prayers. He cares about us and the things that are important to us. If we but ask, He will listen and answer. Now, the answers certainly don’t always come in the way we expect. I thought that after I prayed, my computer would suddenly connect to UC’s Internet. He didn’t answer me that way. Instead He answered by sending me a bus. I didn’t recognize it as His answer at first. In fact, I first viewed it as a great inconvenience and even wished it would go away. I was frustrated and upset by its presence there. However, the very thing that was so inconvenient for me ended up being a perfect answer to my plea. How often do we push away people, things, or circumstances that we find unpleasant, inconvenient, or annoying when in fact it is the very answer we have been praying for? God usually doesn’t answer in the way we expect, I believe, to test how much we really want the answer. If we give up too early, we push away that person, thing, or circumstance and thus the answer to our prayers then turn and blame God for not answering us. His answers come in His time and His way, even if it takes the form of a bus.

The rest of it

Here is a little more of an update in picture form...

This is Christmas morning! I was fun to have the time with just Scott and me. We got up and took some friends to the airport then opened our stockings. We waited for the presents till after church and even then we opened presents from other people and then opened them from each other.

Gingerbread house! Danielle Dean made it for us because we were going to decorate with them.
I got Scott a charger for his Xbox controler, NCAA football 12, normal stocking stuff which always includes zingers, shoe glue, a relaxation basket, and such. He got me Aero bars (bike stuff), mountain biking shoes and cleats, hangers, and other normal stocking stuff.
This year we named our tree squishy, hence the picture below. We some how fit this MASIVE tree inside our car with Scott and me. This year we are starting a new tradition; we cut a circle off the end of the tree and we are going to make a Christmas tree out of it. Every year we will add a new christmas tree ornament for each tree!
Squishy while he was still alive!
When we went to the temple in Louisville we made it into a whole trip. After a session we went to get frozen yogurt and then to the louisville slugger museum.
These pictures are backwards in time but I really don't feel like switching them around. Meredith, my sister, came for Thanksgiving this year. On Friday we went ice skating around.
I had to go into work on Friday so I am all decked out in my work clothes here.
For some CRAZY reason we decided to brave black friday (really thursday late night). This is our booty from it.
Pretending that we were having a good time counting the number of people with a missing front tooth (at least 6). We were there from 7-1ish. Thank goodness we were about 4th in line to check out! It still took an hour to check out because people had so much stuff.
It was ridiculous the mass amounts of people. We waited in the hunting department for our xbox and connect and in between the frozen foods and the deli for our TV.
Are we sure we want to do this? Especially at the most getto Walmart in Cincinnati?
Thanksgiving FEAST! Sweet potatoes, apple pomegranate salad, green been casserole, potatoes, cranberry sauce, spinach artichoke dip and TURKEY!
Our beautiful turkey when it came out of the oven. It was delicious in flavor but it cooked a little too long.
Meredith and I perfected the salt encrusted turkey this time! Next time we will just cook it a little shorter and we will have concurred the perfect turkey.
Just like 2 years ago, we had to use power tools to open our turkey up! Scott wants a salt encrusted turkey every year.

Update on life:

I have a job that I started in August. I have about a 45-50 minute commute on way. The longest it's taken me was 1 hour and 45 minutes. I am a wellness specialist at a retirement home. I really do TONS of different things. I do employee wellness programing, competitions, answer member questions, do orientations, personal training, cooking classes, cycling class, etc... I really do love it and have enjoyed everything about it except for the commute. Scott is still working at the Nielsen company and enjoying that as well. He has become the face of a software tool called Spotfire. People inside the company now call it Scottfire. He has been asked to do trainings in several places.

We do only have one car so he takes the bus into down town and then on days that he is not onsite he has to walk 1.5 miles into work. It saves a ton of money so it is worth it!

Really there's not much to update about our lives besides boring work stuff and such.

Update in pictures

Here's a little update about the last 6 months of life...

So, yes, 4 days after surgery I went to girls camp. People think I'm crazy for doing it, but really it was just what I needed at that time. The first day was setting up tents, which I couldn't really do much about (dang it!). It rained as well that first day. That night I slept in the cabin with all the stake leaders on a 4 inch mattress laid on a wooden board. The next day I was in charge of check-in for all the YW coming to camp.

I gave up on the mattress on the wood after the first night. I went to the tent with the 4th years who I was supposed to be with. I slept on a cot with the same mattress on it. It was one of the most comfortable things ever! So, I slept in the tent the rest of my time there. I also wore dresses the entire time that I was there. I wasn't aloud to flex at my hip more that 90 degrees and I couldn't have any external rotation. Because of these stipulations I couldn't put on pants very easily.

I'm in the middle with a dress and t-shirt on top. A little weird but, given the circumstances...

Craig and Savanna Speil came up from Ohio University to visit us. We all went to the zoo together and had a blast.


They were walking out the door when we noticed they pretty much matched.



We drove down to watch BYU's first game! We were planning on making this sign, but then BYU wasn't doing so well. We were able to make it the last few minutes of the game and celebrate with all the BYU fans there (old mis).

The campus was actually very nice and there were SO many people tailgating. Apparently people camp out for their tailgating spot. My cousin Zoe and her family where there from Nashville, so we were able to see them for a little bit.

Scott and I catered a wedding in October. That week we made 80lbs of potatoes into fries. I was using the mandalin slicer on the first potato and slipped and cut my hand instead. The picture doesn't do it justice. We didn't have anything on hand to help so Scott ran down to the gas station while I kept my hand above my head on the wall with pressure to stop the bleeding. It didn't close for days. I really should have gone to get it stitched but I kept thinking about all the potatoes I had to deal with.

We also went to Idaho to welcome Jim and Arlene McCauley home from their 1.5 year mission in Russia.

This was what I came home to one day on our 4 year and 4month anniversary. Yes we are still the disgustingly sappy couple who celebrates month anniversary, I hope we always are.
My pumpkin I carved for Halloween.
Scott's pumpkin, which is way cuter than mine.
Scott thought of the amazing idea to have pie day the day before thanksgiving. We had pizza and then key lime, pumpkin, blueberry, and cheesecake pies. It was ingenious because we didn't have to worry about making them on Thanksgiving. More to come soon...