World's Cutest Tap Dancer

Clearly Saylor is in her element here. Tuesday was "sneak peek" day where parents could sit in on the last 15 minutes of class. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. It was capped with my sweet girl constantly winking at me.

I rocked!

I did it! I completed my first Sprint Triathlon! It was honestly the most amazing experience of my life - and I rank it just a smidge higher than giving birth because I did this FOR me and ONLY me! Amazing. I had the goofiest grin the entire time (except during the swimming portion, where I was grinning on the inside for fear of swallowing lake water) and was WICKED proud of myself.

And since I tend to get long winded, feel free to just look the photos and not read the rest if you're short on time...

Game time! Here's the scene at 6:25am, July 26, 2009.

The five of us wore "Psyched to TRI" glitter tattoos.

After the big finish!

The five of us after we all finished and wearing our medals.

Jill: 1:53.37 - my official time! Twenty minutes faster than I expected it to take!

I know I said above that I did this for me and only me... but how can you not have even more pride when you see how excited your 3yo is about having a medal winner in the house? She wore it with her Cinderella dress up shoes for a week. It was awesome to have say, "did you win your race, mumma?" Yes, dear, mumma won.

Want the whole scoop? Read on...

The swim portion was great. It was a little daunting to have 100s of women swimming around you, but it was fine. There were "waves" or groups of 100 who started together - and then, depending on your speed, you either caught up to the group who had left a minute before you, or the next wave caught up with you. There were tons of "angels" in the water either in boats or with the swim noodles you see kids using, to just help you not freak out about being in a lake and not in a swimming pool where most of us had trained.

Thirteen minutes later it was on to the bike portion. A bit of baby powder to soak up the last bit of moisture and brush off the sand from the run from the beach and into my sneakers my feet went.

The 12-mile bike course was challenging because of a GIANT hill and I mean G-I-A-N-T. It was a 1.5-mile incline in three stages, the first being the toughest. I walked up the first two and biked the third to help save my legs for the run.

Upon reaching the crest my goofy grin began to emerge. I had just accomplished HALF of the event. OhmygodI'mtheawesomestwomanIknowandI'msoproudofme!

It was also at this point that I think I forgot that it was a "race" and while I was still working at getting to the finish line, I know that I didn't push as hard as I could have - and really enjoyed the experience. I finished the bike portion in under an hour and was thrilled.

The run wasn't bad. It was less than three miles and looped through a little lake side community. I know I walked much more than I should have - but again, it was just awesome to be running alongside first timers, ten timers, getting "whoo hoos" from fellow racers and folks who came out to cheer us on - and in one case, a gal who sprayed us down with a hose as we ran by.

It's about here that my smile was from ear to ear and I was amazed at myself! The finish line was - oh my - just amazing. I remembered a friend saying to smile as you cross because there are photographers (see first photo above) and I milked it!

I began training for the event in January and in four months had slimmed down 9+ inches and lost about ten pounds and was on my way to fitting into a size I haven't seen since middle school. With some family changes and becoming a "happily married single parent," I slowly gained nine pounds back. On race day, I was not looking the way I had envisioned. Days before the event, I tried on my race outfit and was pissed at myself for this bulge here, this roll there. But when I tell you that I saw women of EVERY shape and size, I mean e-v-e-r-y shape and e-v-e-r-y size. They swam. They biked. They RAN! I met one gal who had four kids. The oldest was 5yo, the youngest, just 3mo! I met a 79yo woman. I met 18yos!

This event is clearly for every woman and I recommend it to every woman I know. The event partners with The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and considering we all have boobies, it's just another reason to get moving!

Of the 2700+ racers that day, over 500 were breast cancer survivors. It makes me emotional just thinking about it. It was very easy to get caught up in the excitement of the race (and make it all about me), but that morning, I spotted a tall woman, who looked to be about 50yo. Her hair was silver and short and spikey, in a way that showed that this was a new hairstyle with newly grown-in hair. She was who I was there for. She was my mother, my sister, my aunt, my niece, my best friend. I was doing this event for her and the hundreds of thousands of woman who should have been standing there, but who are no longer with us. She was why I swam, why I rode, why I ran. Why I ROCKED.

And I plan to do it again next year: July 25, 2010. Who's with me?

Six Weeks to Go

CB gave me an iPhone for my birthday - he couldn't have missed my desire for one unless he had lived on Mars for the six months prior to my 36th birthday. To say I love this piece of plastic and glass would be an understatement. It's my new right hand.

But since getting it, I find I don't get on the actual computer much anymore - much to the happiness of my two children. I can check email, websites, play scrabble, read a book, check my bank account and the all important, FaceBook, without having to actually sit down to do it. The best thing is that I can leave it on the counter and away from little hands. I do have the ability to update the blog from the phone, too, but I just haven't really tried too hard to do it.

But back to the subject of this entry. I've got six weeks to go until my triathlon! I started training in February for it and at that point, July 26 seemed years away. But now it's "next month!" Eeeks!

I've been sick so much during this training - or maybe I've been as sick as I would have been without the training, but I am more aware of it when the illnesses keep me from running, swimming or biking. I'm just finishing up some antibiotics and for the first time in ten days, I finally got a run in and it felt great! Much better than I expected.

The next thing I need to do is finally order my gear - my suit and whatever stuff I will need for the big day. I also want to get my bike checked out and see if I need to get anything to make it more suitable for the 12 mile race. It's only two years old, but it's a recreational bike, and I just want it to look the part that day.

I'm off to get my workouts scheduled for the week, now that I'm among the living again!

Long Time No See

So apparently I need to update this blog. My friends are giving me a
hard time that I've been lax in this department.

I'm on the train to NYC to see a Broadway show but I promise to get
back to this blog. As usual lots of things have been happening - and
I'm proud to say that I'm rolling with all the changes pretty well.

I'm Going to Tri

I still have to update on our family happenings in January, but suffice it to say that we are facing some big changes and I'm still coming to terms with how they will affect my family as a whole. And I'm going to be required to step up and put a kibosh on any kind of whining that I'm quick to do when my going gets tough. I also am going to have to remind myself daily that we're healthy and that CB has a great job and many in our lives and in the world can't say that right now.

So with these changes comes stress. I could just sit on my butt and eat a bag of Oreos in one sitting - and I don't think anyone would blame me. Or instead, I could get off my butt and do something. And in my case, that "something" is a triathlon. Yes. I wrote that word and, yes, I meant to.

Those who know me in my current life may not realize that in a past life, I was a competitive swimmer, diver and track and field athlete. Of course that past life was close to 20 years ago, but still... it's in me somewhere, albeit buried beneath stretch marks, gray hair, diapers and crushed Cheerios.

A new friend, Rebecca, suggested it to me and we began training two weeks ago. And I already feel lighter - maybe not in pounds lost, but definitely in attitude (something both CB and the kids appreciate!). So the two of us, along with at least three other friends - and, as of yesterday, 700+ others, are competing in the Danskin SheROX Triathlon on July 26. I've already signed up and paid my entry fee, so I guess I'm really doing it!

I'm going to swim. I'm going to ride. I'm going to run. I'm going to ROCK! I'm so excited for this. It will be the second hardest thing I've ever done (the hardest: giving birth twice sans meds; but this will hopefully take less time then both of those labors).

Oh and if you're interested, there's still room for others to join in the fun! But if you were, perhaps, a cheerleader in your past life and you find yourself in Webster, MA, on Sunday, July 26 at, oh, say, 7:00 AM, feel free to scream, "Go Jill! Go Rebecca! Ra! Ra! Ra!"

Have you done a Tri? Got any advice you want to pass my/our way? It would all be appreciated!

Showing the Love

Saylor shows the love...
Yes, that's Sesame Street - TV is the only way to get her to sit still long enough for me to do anything to her hair. And then the whole thing comes out at naptime as she refuses to have the smallest pony when sleeping.

I got the idea from this mom and this mom - so many fun ideas! I can't wait to do some more!

Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

The holidays came and went. A quick sentence for a season that seemed to go by just as fast. Last I knew it was Labor Day and then - bam - Santa was making preparations for his visit to our house.

We had a wonderful holiday season. It kicked off in November with my mom visiting, and then 19 of our nearest and dearest descending on our little abode to give thanks. I channeled Martha Stewart and created very attractive table settings, if I do say so myself.

The turkeys on each plate had "feathers" on which guests were invited to write something for which they were grateful for that person.

Big sister, middle sister and our mom.

Cranberries in hurricanes. We ran out of room on the tables so in went the taper candles.

The kids and the dog looked especially cute on the morning of our first snowfall in early December.
And it made for a wonderful photo gift for family members.

December was a whirl-wind and before I knew it our desire to limit the number of gifts each child would receive resulted in me over-buying. I found myself saying my mom's two most used Christmas lines, "Hmm... don't know what's in that one so guessing's not going to work, just open it." And this classic, two days after the last of the wrapping paper remnants had been picked up and upon looking deep into the walk-in closet, "Oh crap. I forgot I got Saylor a Cabbage Patch Doll."

I was so excited, too, when I purchased little Nyla Ronnie, too! It is the 25th anniversary of the CPK dolls and I am proud to say, I had an original. Dale Michael was my bald little baby and I loved him. If I knew where he was, my kids would be playing with him now. He went with me everywhere during fifth grade - as did all of my girlfriends' Cabbage Patches.

Searching for that perfect Christmas tree - and one that costs less than $100.

I readily admit I bribed the kids with candy canes to get this photo.

Family Christmas 2008

Saylor, along with our neighbors' girls, enjoying the ton of snow we received just after Christmas.

In our house, if you can walk, you can clean. Hugo's even got his very own Swiffer so cleaning up is even easier.

Then *bam* it was 2009. Honestly I remember rocking out to Dick Clark's Rocking Eve when I was 14 thinking, "Wow, I can't believe it's 1987! Duran Duran looks great tonight!" And now I'm in my mid-30s. How did that happen?

A few days later, CB and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary. I can't believe it's been that long and thankfully neither of us seems to be getting any kind of "itch" that I've heard others mention.


More happened in January, but I think I'll save that for another post... and hopefully it won't take two months for me to share it.