Godspeed to Maj. Robert V. Younger

Friday the 13th. Lucky or unlucky? I'm banking that it's just another day... so I'll take what the day brings me and then make what I can of it. 

It was still dark when the kids and I left to take IronRobert to the armory this morning. He and his fellow troops left today for (re)deployment to Iraq. They'll remain stateside for a couple months before they mobilize, but we won't be able to see him or visit. Seeing the soldiers all in their uniforms; their families up before the crack of dawn to say goodbye... was moving. 

Actually, "moving" doesn't adequately describe it. But which words would? It's not easy to describe. You want to be cheerful and controlled, but all you really feel is scared and sad and ungrounded. And also enormously proud and thankful and angry and honored and impressed... and then you circle back to scared and sad and then your heart feels like it's being squashed and there's not quite enough oxygen in the room. We miss you already, friend. Please know we will be thinking of you always - everyday - and praying for your safety.

These are the two guys that will be working closely with Robert. I asked them to take care of him. If you pray, please add these two guys. I don't know their names, but if you just pray for "the two guys working with Robert," God will know who you mean. It sounds like a really interesting job, but it's dangerous and they need your thoughts and prayers. All the service men and women do.

We said goodbye and then the kids and I cried all the way to school.

On a brighter note, I pulled myself together and had a great meeting [when] at [where] with two [individuals] from ["and a smile"] about the [noun] . Hopefully I will have details to share in the next couple of weeks. One of the [adjective] [plural noun]s I dined with said this is like a marathon and I'm at mile 24. To those awesome friends who provided [prose] at a moment's notice, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. There is no one in the universe who has greater friends than I do, and I love you all so much!

Below is a group shot of dinner last night with IronRobert. 

Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

xoxoxo

January thaw arrives Jan 31; Lego League State Championship

OK, you may not believe this, but it's true..... Snow is actually melting outside right now as I type. Seriously! Today it is 34 degrees -- we were just half a day shy of not seeing above freezing temps for the entire month. It's been bad and it wreaks havoc on your training and your mood.

BUT.... today Holly, Chae, Diane and I ran around Medicine Lake (7.75 miles). It was perfect out. We even heard real. live. birds. chirping. 

Below is a picture we took this morning of a suburb of ice houses - if you don't know about ice fishing, it's like the state sport in MN. These houses are often beautiful inside with wall paper, flat screen tv's, sleep up to 4 comfortably, etc. It's so toasty in there that you don't even wear a coat. When you get bored, you go snowmobiling for a while (or drive your car to your real home) to get more food or (gasp) more beverages. 

Ice fishing is basically a way for a guy's guy to get out of the house, hang out drinking with their buddies watching the game, and still manage to bring home fresh fish for dinner. 

Here's how it works: You drop a line into a hole you auger'ed through about 20 inches of lake ice, and when a fish is on the line, the bell rings. If you have an extra hole outside your ice house and you can't hear that bell, a flag will go up if you have a fish. Isn't it ingenious? THe fish sort of catch themselves for ya.

We know guys who spend all day out in these houses on weekends.

Here are Holly, Diane and Chae - part of the lake loop is across a boardwalk through the wetlands. It's really pretty.

Last weekend was the State Tournament for Lego League. The first picture I took is of the scrolling leader-board when the Steel Claws were in first place after the first round. Their robot eventually moved down to 4th overall, but considering there were 34 teams from all over MN, (that first had to win at their respective regions), it was pretty awesome and we are so proud of them! They did win 1st place in one category, though - yea!!

Bobby's in the front holding the trophy (made of legos of course) that they won for 1st Place in Presentation. The had to invent something useful that was good for the environment and they created a Zamboni-like truck which heats and sprays a brine solution onto the MN roadways to melt ice, but not damage the foliage or pollute the nearby rivers and lakes. So their winning presentation was basically a sales pitch of their invention to the judges. 

They pitched it like a newscast - Bobby was the anchorman, Josh was the field reporter who was on the scene with car crash victim Tanner, Isaac was the weatherman, and Daniel and Spencer were the featured scientists/ inventors of the Boni Ice Thawing machine.

Daniel, Spencer, Isaac, Josh, Tanner, and Bobby in front with their trophy.

Fargo Training Update

FARGO MARATHON (May 9, 2009) TRAINING

OK, it was minus 27 on the way to the kids' school this morning; and minus 44 with the windchill - who can train in this [censored adjective] weather?? Luckily it was a little warmer last weekend and I did get a solid 10 miler under my belt. But with Fargo Marathon 16 weeks away, I would prefer to be running outside three times a week. 

Fargo Marathon is one of my favorites because:

1). it's the perfect "Ironman's marathon"  --  very early in the season, so you are prepared for the run portion of your summer Ironman and can concentrate on those 100 mile bike rides on Sundays.

2). It is flat and fast. We are talking maybe 17 feet of climbing.

3). The course is well supported and fun - you go through all kinds of neighborhoods, parks, college campuses.

4). The spectators are really friendly.

5). You do your longest training runs in the spring, so you[r training buddies] aren't sweltering and whining for 22 miles. ;-)

6). It's a small-town urban marathon, so nice, clean and inexpensive hotels with pools are right across the street from the start line. (Seriously - you walk to the start line).

7). You get a nice long sleeved performance fabric race shirt.

If you have not done this race and would like to try something up north, I LOVE this race. Come up and do it with us!!!

There are four of us doing Fargo together: Terri, Erin, Liz and me. Terri's broken elbow is getting much better, and she back in the pool - yea! No dumbbell curls yet, but she IS able to run. She's headed off to San Diego for 8 days of training, so let's try not to feel TOO sorry for her. Liz is working through her hip flexor [chronic] injury, but she's still hoping for a Boston qualifying run in Fargo. Erin has properly nursed her plantar faciitis and will start running again this week. As for me, I'm healthy, just fat. Not really REALLY fat, but fat enough that I'll have to work hard to get under 4 hours. I would like to lose ten pounds so it's easier on my old body. I haven't had any dairy for a few days, so if I stick with that I should cut some calories.

Cross training - I got back in the pool Tuesday for 3350 yards. I actually felt pretty strong considering I have only been in the pool once in the last two months. Today a gas pipe was leaking at Lifetime, so they closed the whole club before we could swim, so I will have to do something else - maybe a spinerval - instead. Speaking of which, has anybody tried Troy Jacobsen's "Suffer-O-Rama" DVD? We did it Tuesday night and it was AWESOME. It's only 50 minutes long, but great - I definitely was pushed beyond my limit and was unable to maintain the required effort until the end of the sets. Gotta get back in the saddle and try again... it's nice to find a workout that you can't quite complete.

Otherwise, I've been skiing when it's warm enough. Helen and I skated once and classic'ed once in the last week.

Here are Steve, Denny, Diane and me near Helen's house on Sunday. Classic x/c skiing is the best light cardio and you can't beat the scenery and having your friends with you. Maybe if the temps climb to zero or even warmer, I can get back out.

 

Happy New Year! Score: 26 to 1

Like so many others, I was delighted to welcome in a new year and say goodbye to 2008 because as the money stopped flowing in, (Bob's in real estate), we lived sometimes on money transferred from our savings account/retirement funds. Worrying about money can put a damper on everything if you let it. 

But I would be remiss if I allowed the money situation to overshadow the great blessings that 2008 brought in. Writing the good things down is a good exercise in keeping things in perspective.

Here are just a few, in no particular order:

1). Racing with Pamela in the beautiful wine country where I went on my honeymoon 13 years ago.

2). Watching and cheering at IM CDA with many blogger friends.

3). Going on vacation out west with the TriGreyhounds and the TaconiteBoy/Trimama families.

4). Visiting our dear friends in Iowa just riding our bikes and swimming in their pool.

5). Qualifying for Boston after 29 attempts (3:59:52)

6). Bobby's LegoLeague team qualifying for the State Championship and winning first place for programming their robot.

7). We are all healthy (enough).

8). Laura and Greg got married.

9). Tim and Karen got married.

10). Erin did her first Ironman.

11). The kids love love love their new school.

12). My children love the Lord.

13). I joined in a Bible study with a great group of girlfriends.

14). Bobby got to go to camp again.

15). Jeremy opened a new bike shop.

16). I PR'd in the half Iron distance (5:18)

17). I got a Mac.

18). My kids did well in school - only one B between the two of them.

19). Bob got to get away for a week of fishing with the guys in Canada.

20). My dad who had a stroke, took 60 steps in a row after having been in his wheelchair for two years.

21). My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

22). Bobby got under 30 minutes in the 5K distance.

23). I am blessed with countless friends who love me and I love back.

24). [So far] we still live in this beautiful house in Wild Meadows where we walk on the private wooded trails where we can watch the deer, wild turkeys, pheasants and even a great grey owl.

25). The kids are old enough to stay home without a babysitter for short jaunts.

26). I can still swim 100 yards in under 1:10, with just a push off from the wall if I try hard.

Well, that was easy just to come up with 26 without having to think hard at all. So the score is "Life Is Good" 26 to "2008 Sucked" 1.

Are you grateful or grumpy? It's a choice, you know. 

My goal for 2009 is "Practice Contentedness".

POLAR DASH

On New Year's Day we had to choose between jumping in frozen Lake Minnetonka or running the 5K. Since Bobby's friend Jeremy (son of my friend Guy) wanted to run, we ran.

Here is the start. As you can see I am not crazy for getting outside in Minnesota in the winter. I have LOTS of company:

... and here are the four of us before the start:

And here we are with about a mile to go:

We came in at 30:18, which isn't bad considering we had to run on icy snow the whole way.

Afterward, Santi hosted a make-your-own breakfast at her house where Jeremy cooked up some fabulous scrambled eggs with veggies-and-ham for me, and Bobby made pancakes for everybody.

... then Jeremy came over to play video games with Bobby. We later took a long walk in the woods:

...and the kids got so tired out that they had to lie down and eat snow:

It was a wonderful day to decide to WELCOME 2009. Please join me in PRACTICING CONTENTEDNESS in 2009!

On another topic, did I ever show you guys the mural that my girlfriend Stephany painted in my upstairs laundry room? She just asked me for a photo of it, so I thought I'd show it to you, too. It's of a beach in the Galapogos Islands where I went for my 4oth birthday a few years back. When you touch it, the lava rocks actually feel gritty - it's like it's 3-dimensional. Very cool. I pre-designed the layout of the floor tiles just for someone to paint a future mural for me and I think it turned out great.

Christmas 2008

This year we stayed in town, but we had so much fun just hanging out, being with so many of our friends. IronGreg's parents came from Wisconsin, so we went over to Greg and Laura's for dinner and game night:

IronTim and IronKaren (who is pregnant!!) and Laura's dad and sister (the one I run pretty much all my marathons with - gray sweatshirt) were there, too. Here's our group photo:

On Christmas Eve we went to the midnight service and Ally and Bobby got to read the scripture and prayer and light the advent candle. They did great, and the service was beautiful. 

Then on Christmas day, Greg and Laura and Greg's parents came for dinner at our house. First we went for a group hike (Laura and I classic skied), and we followed a HUGE grey owl in the woods for a while - it was so cool. I don't know how he managed to fly from tree to tree with that gigantic wingspan. I kept wondering if he was eye-ing up Zurich to determine if he should eat her.

When we got back to the house, we found that Ally was painting pink and blue streaks into Pat's (Greg's mom) hair - it's called Girl Crush hair painting and the label says it washes out in one washing but she JUST got it for Christmas so I hope it really does wash out. ;-) She and Ally really bonded it was so sweet it almost made me a bit weepy. When she was done, she also gave Pat and Laura makeovers with eyeshadow and lipliner and the works. Let me just say Ally doesn't have the steadiest hand for lipliner, but it was so cute that Pat was such a good sport!

Bobby and Ally kept calling her Grandma Pat, so we just made her their honorary grandma since they don't ever see grandparents. (My parents are in NJ and my mom basically takes care of my dad who is in a wheelchair after a debilitating stroke 3 years ago; Bob's dad passed away, and we just never see his mom). They really adored Greg's parents.

For dinner I made (yes - you read that right - I actually cooked even though I think cooking is a big waste of time -- aside from Christmas, of course. If I've got three hours,  I'd rather go for a bike ride than stand around a stove drinking and stirring)... but anyway, I made a lemony-buttery, lightly garlic-y chicken with capers over angel hair pasta. It was great! Pat brought an assortment of desserts and we all ate and drank, and ate and drank, and ate ad drank... I feel so FAT that even my socks are tight - but it was all good. ;-)

This is how much we ate - this huge pile of dishes is just what didn't fit into the dishwasher -- and that left side sink is ultra deep and it's completely overflowing.

Then we played balderdash... I love that game...

... and then everybody left. It was a perfect day. Last year we went to Hawaii, but I would have to say that this year's celebration was just as beautiful because we all loved being together so much. I am truly blessed with amazing friends.

So today I get back in the saddle with working out relatively regularly. Uffda - so much rich food! I called Nick and Steve and they came over for an emergency kitchen spin, and then Nick and I also ran afterwards. Tomorrow is the Gear West team spin at the shop, and Sunday morning is the group run, and Sunday afternoon, Steve and Helen are having a x/c skiing party. Much as I enjoyed eating everything in sight, it'll feel good to actually zip my jeans up all the way again... hopefully soon.

Hope you all had a great day, too. God bless us. Every one!

'Tis the Season...

... blizzards in Minnesota. It is what it is. We deal.

... and then we get outside! Here is Bobby - we are out on the trails behind the house.

... and Ally who brought along her friend Jordan.

On the last day of school, Ally's class room invited the parents to look around the room before they regaled us with carols. Here she is proud to show us that one of her papers made the penmanship bulletin board - whoo-hoot Ally!

... And Bobby's 5th grade class put on a full musical that was amazing! These kids put on a 45 minute play - memorizing all their lines and singing and dancing --- it was fanTAStic! We were so impressed.

Here he is with his friends Isaac, Mark and Ryan. I just have to say how glad I am about the school change. Bobby has so many more friends at our new school. They genuinely like him, and it is such a relief to see that he fits is so seamlessly here. He doesn't even bite his fingernails anymore. I continue to be amazed at how wise a move it was for us. 

... the cast picture.

Merry Christmas to all!

The one good thing...

... about the -10 degree temperatures we are "enjoying" is that it makes the snow for x/c skiing really, really fast. 

Now if it were only warm enough to go out and ski...

Christmas Lights Run; Lego League Tournament

Christmas Lights Run

Friday night I went to the Start Line (local running store) for a beautiful night time run around the marsh and through neighborhoods to view the Christmas lights. It was a full moon, so we really didn't even need our headlamps. Afterward, the owner, Charles, had wine and sandwiches for us. How can you NOT love Minnesotans - we definitely make the best of our less-than-desirable weather.

Out on the run. Hard to see but there is a great light display behind us:

Me with Jessie and Charles:

Post run spread at the store:

Lego League

What? You never heard of Lego League? I hadn't either until we switched schools, and Heritage Christian Academy has a team. 

Bobby loves Legos, so when he learned that five other kids in his class were on the team, he decided to join and be the 6th member. It's been amazing. It's sponsored by 3M and there are 160,000 kids worldwide who participate. Here's what they do:

Build a robot (base materials are Legos) that can accomplish tasks on a field course. 

You use a little computer to program your instructions and if successful, your robot will accomplish it. The course is a vinyl mat on a table, and all the teams get the same mat to practice on and to compete on. But the robots each team made varied widely, and had assorted attachments. The robot has to maneuver around the course, performing tasks, like picking up and dropping Lego people into a specific area, knocking Lego boulders off of rubber rings, pulling levers, turning out lights, etc. So these 5th graders used motion detectors, light sensors, and battery operated motors to program their robot to do all this stuff - I was so amazed and impressed. 

They also had to perform a 5 minute skit about Climate change. Theirs was a TV newscast. It was great!

Next they had a head-to-head competition with the 32 other teams. 

Anyway, their team is called Steel Claws, and at the tournament yesterday they won 1st Place in Programming and came in 2nd Place Overall, so they are going on to the State Tournament next month! 

The boys were so excited they were jumping up and down. They really worked hard on this project.

The boys with their 1st place plaque for Programming: Daniel, bobby, Spencer, Isaac, Josh, and Tanner in front.

What a smart way for 3M to get kids inventing stuff - then 3M can hire these little geniuses in the future!

Ironman this weekend!

Someone named Barry Roesler asked me to post this: (His name is familiar, but do I know this guy? Anyway, here it is...

For the 18th consecutive year, NBC will present the ultimate showdown of raw athletic competition and human perseverance -- the Ford Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii -- on Saturday, Dec. 13, from 2:30 – 4:00 p.m. ET.  The 90-minute special, a network television staple since the 1980s, has won a total of 14 Emmy Awards during the race’s illustrious history and Emmy Award winning narrator, Al Trautwig will provide the voiceover for this year’s broadcast.  Please follow this link to a photo of the chaos that begins the race.

 

This year, among the highlighted athletes are a T6 paraplegic that was injured in a Motocross accident, a Navy SEALS member that has raised more than $300,000 for the Special Operations Warrior Foundation and a two-time terminal cancer survivor, to name a few.Below you will find a link to the trailer as well as a link to the Ironman Web site broadcast page.

Links:

Ironman Online Media Center

 Ironman YouTube Trailer

 

 

Reindeer Run

Guy, his son Jeremy, Ally, Bobby, Holly and Josie and I ran the Reindeer Run around Lake Harriet last weekend. It was SOOOO crowded! We never did get to really run, and had to be happy with 34:30. Jeremy started dodging the crowd and pulled ahead and finished in 33:30 and earned a $20 gift card at a running store - great job Jeremy!

Here we are huddled in the tent before the start.

Afterwards, we stopped for coffee and then headed home to get the tree up. We are fake tree people, so it goes up in about one minute. We have some ornaments that contain verses from 'Twas  The Night Before Christmas, so the kids take turns reading them and hanging them.

Bobby taking a turn.

Then Robert took out his Rock Band and Guitar Hero game for his Wii, and played with Bobby and Ally. 

We cracked up when Robert said, "I'm so good at this game it's embarrassing." The kids and Bob and I were duly impressed. 

We did finally get some real snow! And I just learned that the country club down the road actually grooms a trail for us - I can't believe I've lived here three years and didn't know that. I'm heading over Thursday morning with my neighbor Lynn to check it out.

A Spin, a Soldier, and a Kona Qualifier

Kitchen Spinning

is back in season - here are TriNick and Dia sweatin' to Coach Troy. They (and Bob and I) did a two-workout session and then had beer and beef stew. yum!


Our good friend Robert will be re-deployed in February, and since his lease was up on his condo, he's going to stay with us for a couple months. Some of you know him from IM Florida, which he did with us in '07. On past Veteran's Days, he's gone to the kids' school to visit and have them sing songs to him and many other servicemen and women. He was recently promoted to Major. Bobby and Ally love him, so obviously they are thrilled having him around.

A couple days ago he delighted them with an MRE: 

That's "meal- ready to eat" for those of you civilian folks. This is an enchilada... and while it was fun to cook up (a few tablespoons of water in a mystery chemical in the outer bag heated it up in about 30 seconds - seriously), this meal was intended to be fuel, not gourmet.  But Ally nonetheless was all excited about it so he gave her another one to take to school to show her class. What a hit! They were talking about chemical reactions in science, so the timing was perfect. Her teacher, Mrs. Goettsche, helped her prepare Meatballs in Marinara and they also shared the other goodies like crackers, cheese spread and gum. 

Robert left yesterday morning for a couple days of training prior to deployment. I have to admit it saddened/scared me to see him in his uniform, knowing he's going back to the scariest place on earth in just a few short weeks. 

On a happier note, Holly, Diane, Merilee and Iwent to General Mills for lunch with Chae (who works there). GM has the BEST corporate cafeteria and we often go there to meet Chae for lunch! This is much of the crew that I did Whistlestop with a couple months ago. I love these girls. Gigantic kudos to Merilee who qualified for Kona at Arizona a couple weeks ago with a 10:55... congrats Merilee!!!

... yeah I know I look pregnant in this picture, but I'm not, okay? ;-)

Thanksgiving Day Reunion

This is Ally and Sophia (Trimama's daughter) at Target Center Thanksgiving morning.

Sophia: ALLY!

Ally: SOPHIA!

Sophia: How r u?

Ally: Awesome! How r u?

Sophia: Awesome!

Ally: What's that?

Sophia: I brought a Webkinz.

Ally: Cool! Can I see?

Sophia: Sure!

Ally: Neat.

Sophia: Thx. He can run the 5k with us.

Ally: Cool!

Sophia: LOL

Ally: LOL!

They hadn't seen each other much since our vacation in Washington state, so here is how their excited reunion went when they saw each other at the Target Center. It was so funny seeing them texting each other while they were right there. So cute. Little girls love their phones.

We all ran together until about the last few blocks or so when the Soapinator took off and finished strong... but Ally came in at 38:50 - her Personal Best! Way to go Ally! Not bad for an 8 year old!

Here she is running with Hugo and Baby Owen:

And here is a group shot after we all came in:

front: Baby Owen in the stroller, Ally and me

middle: Erik (Sarah's hubba - it was his first 5k and he was WAY ahead of everybody!), Laura's sister Sarah (who runs pretty much all my marathons with me), Kelli (Baby Owen's mom)

back: Hugo (Owen's dad), Laura the bride, Greg the groom, Christy, and TriNick in the way back.

Time to get to the best T-day dinner EVER. We ate at our church - no fighting siblings, no drunk Uncle Eds, no quibbling over the dark meat... and Pastor Dan had us all playing Bingo for "valuable" prizes, and we even had a scavenger hunt, so there was a lot of running around inside and outside the church - the perfect thing after a big meal.

After that, Laura and the bridesmaids headed back for the rehearsal while I stayed back at the house getting everything ready for the after-rehearsal party at our house. It was great! About 30 or so of Laura's and Greg's family and out of town friends came over for little sandwiches and cocktails. Greg made the most beautiful toast to Laura - everybody wanted to cry. He is such a prize!

After the guests left, Christy and Laura and I got in our pj's and talked until Laura kicked us out of her room so she could get to sleep.

After I get more pics, I'll post more about the weekend...

;-)

They did it!

Iron Greg and IronLaura got married last night! I don't want to steal any thunder from pics Laura will probably want to post, so I will just give you a glimpse here:

It was a beautiful wedding - so many friends and family members came out, Laura and Greg both looked gorgeous, the weather was great. If you missed TriNight, you would have had a second chance to see all your friends at the wedding - a jillion triathletes were there.

Hugo and Kelly and 4 1/2 month old "Baby Owen" came from CA, and Christy from CT and stayed at our house. My kids just loved having the baby around, and we are so bummed that they all left this morning!!

The guests began to come to town on Tuesday and we had a great time eating, drinking and catching up, going for group runs on the trails and doing all the prep work for the event. Sure was a lot of love floating around. There are lots of great pictures on other people's cameras... hopefully I will get some of them soon.

Here is Bobby at the reception cuttin' a rug with one of the flower girls.

... and me dancing with my hubba...

... and all the kids were breakdancing:

It was really a great weekend.

Congrats to two of the nicest people I've ever been so lucky to know!