Cowboy Zebra

Testing.. testing...

Just trying to do some website catch up!

3 weeks till triathlon!
We were finally able to do an open water swim this weekend! My friend, Melanie, and I were both nervous about it. There are things in the water, it's not clear, and we would be quite aways from shore. When we stepped into the water, we were pleasantly surprised that it was actually a comfortable temperature. We've been having such a mild summer, and have had very few days over 80 degrees. Melanie's husband and their two kids rowed in our little inflatable boat in front of us with the gps so we'd know how far we went. We swam a total of a half a mile, which is what we'll have to swim for the race. After swimming, we got our bikes out of the car and went on a half hour bike ride (7 miles) and a half hour run (about 2 and 3/4 miles). This morning before church, I went on a 12 mile bike ride and a 5k run (what we'll do in the race). We feel really good about our ability to finish, especially having done the lake swim. I'm hoping to join the local womens triathlon training group next week for their group swim. The instructor told me that she gets everyone to line up shoulder to shoulder and enter the water at the same time, simulating the start of the race. I'm sure swimming with lots of people around splashing will be much different then swimming in the lake with just one other person!

My camera has been MIA since the beginning of July so I wasn't able to get the rest of the pictures while Granny and Grampa were here. Interestingly it showed up today in Nathan's gun gear bag. I'm suspicious that he put it there, even though I've asked multiple times if he knew where it was. :)

Yesterday Nathan spent the morning with the kids and I got to join my friends on a bike ride. We drove to a bike trail about an hour away and biked for a total of 34 miles. It was great! It was also pretty easy since it was relatively flat. The scenery was beautiful as the trail took us through woods, fields, by a river, by horse farms, cow farms, small towns, and neighborhoods and there were lots of wild flowers in bloom along side the trail.
I've been continuing to swim once to twice a week although when I missed a week and went back, I felt totally out of breath. But I am getting faster...slowly. I've been reading a running book and have been putting into practice interval training where I run fast for a minute then walk back and do that ten times or so. It's boring and harder than going for a long run, but it seems to pay off. I ran 3 1/2 miles last weekend and it was faster and easier than the last time I ran that distance. I hit another milestone this week as I reached 40 pounds of total weight loss since July last year!

Last week while my dad stayed home during naptime, I met my friend to bike and run the same route which we did last week. I did the 12 mile bike ride in 50 minutes, which is my fastest time so far. The trail is pretty hilly, so I wonder if my time will be faster on a flatter route or if the downhills make up for the slow going uphills. We did the 3.2? mile run in 40 minutes. It felt a little easier this time, though we still walked a bit.

Yesterday a couple of friends and I were able to leave our kids with my mom and head to the trail to bike and run. We biked 12 miles then ran just over 3 miles which are the amounts we will have to do in the triathlon. We aren't fast, but it's nice to know that we can now do that! I'm able to swim on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons for an hour while the boys are in a home school PE class. As of now, it's taking me about 25 minutes to swim my half a mile.

Last week my throat started to get sore. I wondered if maybe I snored too much the night before, but then it got worse. I thought it would go away in a day or two then I'd get other typical cold symptoms. But that didn't happen. Day three and the sore throat was still there, worse than ever. It felt different than my usual sore throats; it was higher, more at the top of my throat than the bottom. It didn't hurt until I swallowed, then it was terrible and made me wince. It hurt to eat, it felt like my throat was swollen. The pain went up to my ears when I swallowed. It dawned on me that I might have strep throat. I looked up symptoms and pictures on the internet, then I looked in my own mouth. I never had a fever, but my throat was bright red, and sure enough, I had some tiny white spots on one of my tonsils. Fortunately I had been to a gp after Maggie was born so I could get a tetanus shot, so I was "in the system" and was able to get an appointment that afternoon. So I put Maggie and Elliott down for an early nap, did Ian's lessons with him, then woke the other kids up to head to the doctor. I put Maggie in the stroller and instructed the boys not to touch anything at the doctor's office and took a bottle of hand sanitizer. We were in and out of the doctor within 30 minutes and the rapid strep test indicated that I did indeed have strep. The doctor said, "You are contagious now, but won't be after 24 hours on antibiotics. So tonight is the night you need to let your hubby to make dinner and feed the kids and put them to bed and you get to go to bed early with a book". I almost laughed, but just nodded instead. Nathan doesn't usually get home till after 6 when the kids are already starving, but he had already said he would have to work late. So on the way home we stopped at the store to pick up my prescription. I decided I shouldn't make dinner and so picked up a couple of pizzas for the kids and Nathan and a can of soup for me. I took the pill as soon as I got back to the car. By the time I got home from our adventures, I was exhausted and starting to feel pretty bad. My throat was worse than ever. Nathan finally got home in time to brush the kids teeth. I went to bed soon after they did. I woke briefly when Nathan went to bed and tried to swallow. It didn't hurt nearly as bad! The next morning it was even better; just a slightly scratchy feeling. Then by afternoon I felt perfectly fine! Nathan woke up this morning with a bit of a sore throat. I looked in his mouth. He has strep, too. The good thing is that with my history, his doctor was able to just call in a prescription of antibiotics. We're hoping the kids don't get it!

Ok. We've been up and down recently. Our server has been upgraded with new software all around so we should be stable now. There may be one more drop offline as we're moved once more but after that we're golden.

Comments have been disabled until I can do one or two more things to keep the robots in check. They hate math, you know. And squirrels.

Usually when Nathan is out of town we manage fine (besides missing him). This week, for some reason, is much different. My grace runs out usually before breakfast and there has been much discipline in the Bailey household. Tonight we were eating supper outside since it was way too hot in the house. I had grilled a steak so I didn't have to turn on the oven and add anymore heat to the house. I microwaved some frozen veggies for the kids, and picked a big salad for myself. One good size steak will feed the kids and me for one meal, plus have enough to top a salad with the next day. After eating, I told the boys they needed to pick up their little pvc pipe pieces and put them behind a bush. So as Elliott was taking his armload over to the assigned bush, Ian chunked an elbow connector towards the bush. It made a nice popping sound as it landed on Elliott's head (what are the odds?), and Elliott started to wail. The elbow is small (3/4 inch) and so I thought Elliott was overacting. But as he came towards me and I checked him, he was bleeding on the back of his head, the blood trickling down his back. Fortunately it is a very small gash, so no stitches needed. I did want to douse it in Betadine, so I went to get it. The Betadine had fallen behind the dryer, so I pulled the dryer out then squeezed in to retrieve the bottle. Once behind the dryer I saw that by pulling the machine out, I had pulled the vent hose from the wall. I'd fix that later. I took the betadine to the back stoop to put on Elliott and while I was doing so, Isaac decided to take advantage of the desperate situation. I saw him just a second too late as he had his paws on the table and the leftover steak in his mouth. So much for lunch tomorrow. Maggie started to wail, tired of being confined in the highchair, Elliott was sad that he had to take off his superman shirt and cape since it had blood on it, and Ian experienced a spoon on his hide for about the tenth time today. After bathing the three and brushing their teeth (no small feat in itself), I put them to bed. Then I did what any common sensed person would do to unwind. I went out to mow some grass and, in so doing, walked off a lot of frustration. I actually like mowing the grass because we don't have very much to mow, and unlike cleaning the house floors which get messed up within hours or even minutes, the yard looks great the next day, and the next, and even the day after that. It's quite rewarding! As I pushed the mower, the weather turned and nice cool gusts of wind kissed my face. When I came back inside I opened all the doors so the wind could blow through the house. The house went from 85 degrees to 65 degrees in thirty minutes. Tomorrow is supposed to be pleasant and not hot and maybe it will be a better day all around.

It's hot here this week. Really hot. Okay, so really hot for this part of the country. Last night, with all the windows open and the fans on, it was still pretty warm in the house (usually it will cool down significantly as soon as the sun is out of sight). I put Maggie to bed with just a t-shirt and a diaper - that's how hot it was! It's not humid, so really it's not very uncomfortable, and finding a shady place in the breeze outside is the perfect place to be. When I went to bed last night the temp inside said 80 degrees, but it's 55 degrees outside right now and it feels so good!
Here's the forcast for today from weather underground. Looks like we'll have another hot night.

Heat advisory in effect from 2 PM this afternoon to 6 PM PDT Thursday...
Near record high temperatures today and Thursday...
partlycloudy
Today
Mostly sunny. Highs in the mid 80s to around 90. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming north 10 to 15 mph this afternoon.

Here's an article about a family we've become familiar with:

Three Gig Harbor brothers honor a fourth killed in Afghanistan by serving there"

Click here for the video

The dyno runs start in a quick climb into direct drive(4th gear) then you hit the gas and cover your ears(starts at about 60mph). I was taking the video as I shifted, plus the car kept dinging because my seat belt wasn't on. You'll see it redline in 4th at 160mph. There are still two gears left.

I ended up with: 444hp at the rear wheels, along with 470ft-lbs of torque. Another member, with a DC Performance supercharger setup ended up with 704hp.

Maggie has her first tooth coming in today! I can see her other bottom tooth ready, too, but it hasn't cut through yet. Maggie will be 9 months old next week. It's been nice having a gummy baby, but I suppose she has to grow up sometime.
Maggie is also crawling everywhere on all fours now. The inchworm scooch didn't last very long; within a week she was starting to get on all fours and moving very slowly, one limb at a time then pausing to figure out which one to move next. But she can get just about anywhere now. Maggie is also pulling up on EVERYTHING. She often forgets to hold on after a while and then tumbles down. Ian is very protective of her and runs over to her if she starts to stand up. He then says, "It's okay, Maggie, I'll catch you if you fall". If he's busy playing he will then say to me, "Mom can you watch her now? I need to go finish building with the blocks!" Her favorite activity is to pull up on the big wooden block box and then reach inside and pick up blocks, look at them, drop them, then pick up another. They make such a nice sound clunking together!