Wedding Anniversary

Finally got the scans cropped so that I could post some pictures.  Yesterday, we celebrated being married for 18 years.  We dated for 4 years and a week before that, so celebrated 22 years together 8/3.  It hasn't always been easy, but I do believe we make a pretty great team.  I also believe that the lifestyle change a few years ago helps me be a better wife and mom overall.  For years, part of the problem was that I saw myself as that slim thing that shows up in that black dress in the photo below.  I couldn't rectify that image with the heavy person I'd become - even when I weighed over 100 lbs more.  But I'm glad to say that I probably weigh within 15-20 lbs of these wedding photos.  Not too bad for a 40-year-old mom of two.  I'm quite sure we didn't realize how crazy young we were.  Enjoy the flashback:


Dressed up for a date on our first New Year's together (ages 18 and 19 - 12/31/91)

Night we got engaged at my friend Betsy's house (8/3/94)

Our wedding day - 8/12/95

Bridal Party - 8/12/95 in St. Peter Church, Jefferson City

This is 40...

In the movie "Knocked Up", I really identified and enjoyed the supporting characters played by Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann.  In the movie, they were a late 30-something/early 40-something couple with children when their sister gets Knocked Up while on the brink of having some career success.  When they came out with a related movie, "This is 40", I was hoping it would be hilarious.  It was ok, but a bit of a disappointment because of how good I thought their side-story in the original movie was.  They are generally happy in their marriage and their life, but also suffering from many of the usual things that come with being together for a long time and raising children.  As a woman who has slept with the same man for the last 22 years and been a mother for 12 of those, I could totally identify.

Today I turned 40.  In my book, that should be a big deal.  But the reality is that it is really just another day.  The good news is that it gave me a bit of an excuse to be selfish this weekend.  Friday night, we left the kids and headed out for dinner where we could hold a conversation without being interrupted.  We enjoyed our appetizer, a drink for me (that actually wasn't that good for the $6.50 price tag) and our meal - all while enjoying each other too.  Then we headed over to a dueling piano bar and had a few more drinks (at equally disturbing prices).  But we go out very seldom so I figure it was OK to splurge.  We laughed and sang along.  When we got there about nine, we brought down the average age.  That gradually dropped throughout the evening until the bar was fairly full of kids that could have been ours had our birth control failed when we were dating. 

We got home about one choosing not to close the place down.  I think if some of our friends had joined us (as they were invited, but it just didn't pan out), we'd have stuck it out.  But 40 isn't 20, so we came on home.  I slept in a bit and then had some breakfast before heading out for 10+ miles on the bike.  Hadn't gone in two weeks and was overdue.  I felt warmed up about the time I got home.  Doh!  I chilled out after a nice shower and watched a movie as my husband napped.  I also received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my sister which made me feel very special.

Not a terrible shot of the pretty day considering I was riding and my phone does not have two cameras

The card reminded me that I am "Forty and Fabulous!"

Later in the afternoon, I picked up Susan and headed out to the Kicks in the Sticks.  She gave me a nice photo frame with a picture of us from a run last winter (not a great shot, but we took another one at the race so I'll probably swap it out).  I also got a nice Asics headband and a gift certificate to a local wine place.  Hope to take her there for a drink sometime.

We got there with plenty of time to get registered and hang out.  The weather was perfect (if a little warm at the start).  I said hi to Lukas Lamb from Team Virtus and a couple other people I knew.  We took a picture or two and then stood in line for the bathroom. 

Susan and me pre-race - What a good friend!

Then we were off on our 3.5 miles through the woods.  It started with a loop around the grassy area near the play structure, but most of it was single track.  We tried to seed ourselves fairly far back, but still had a couple people pass us.  We leapfrogged with another couple of ladies.  It is a pretty run and all in the shade (where I ended up running holding my sunglasses - doh - I knew that from last year).  Neither of us have run much lately so we didn't bust out any major speed and both were glad we didn't go for the 7.5 mi course.  We popped out of the woods and hit the finish line.  My watch kept auto-pausing when we'd go too slow and/or when it couldn't get a good signal in the trees.  It said it was just shy of 3 miles, but the course listed as 3.5.  Not sure which is correct or if the answer is in the middle.

 

Cool bridge in singletrack - obviously we treated the term "race" rather loosely

I was pretty sweaty and very thirsty so we headed over to get  something to drink and eat and listen to the great music while sitting in some folding chairs, enjoying the lovely scenery (Binder Lake) and perfect temps.  G2 Catering had these chicken pesto wraps with an orzo pasta salad that had some feta and cucumber (to die for).  We each ate two helpings (it was only about a 1/3 of a wrap).  Susan grabbed a beer before they ran out and I had a Powerade.  We visited and listened to the music and agreed it was a great way to finish my 30's.

This morning I got up early to head out with Walter for a ride around town.  It was relatively cool with low humidity still and little wind - in other words, perfect!  Who knew August could be so nice!  We had to do a jiggity-jog through downtown as some streets were blocked off for the state championship crit.  We rode pretty slow and easy, spinning up the hills and not particularly pushing on the flats.  Garmin said our average speed was under 12 mph which seems a bit hard to believe though there are plenty of hills to drag that down.  I broke 40 mph on the last big downhill though.  Wahoo!  We didn't stop too much though we seemed to hit red lights like crazy.  Walter is super positive and relatively fun to ride with.  I know he would ride faster if I wanted to, but is equally happy to just get 23+ miles in before church.

Me and my "bike dad" after 23.1 miles

Came home and immediately headed out for some donuts I had been craving the whole ride.  Ate those with my kids and then read the paper in peace while the kids were buried in their respective electronics.  Later this afternoon, we headed to the pool.  We had two free passes for them and today was the last day.  Never have understood why the pool closes when it is still hot (though the water was plenty cool today).  Found out that the OWS mode on my watch doesn't work for shit in a 25 yd lap lane.  Several times I would do 25-50 yards and the watch would say 10.  Guess I leave my left arm under water too long.  I probably did 10-15 laps through the course of the afternoon - plus one water slide.

Back at home, my husband served me smoked brisket and rice and peaches for dinner.  Very yummy.  I finished it off with a candy bar I got this morning (Hershey's Almonds - favorite!).  Not a bad weekend to celebrate 4 decades on this earth.  It's a good thing as I've been a bit down the last week or so as I was annoyed that none of my friends could commit to going out with us Fri and was sad as I thought about all of the loss I've experienced in this decade of my life.  I also was a bit sad to think about all that changes the next ten years will bring.  By the time I am 50, my kids will basically be grown and I'm sure the losses will continue.  Such is the passage of time.

Working on scanning in some pictures from my dating/engagement/marriage to share for tomorrow's anniversary (yes, I got married the day after my 22nd birthday - nothing like birthday cake at the rehearsal dinner, right?)  God, we had no idea how young we were!  Should be worth a laugh.

Swimming = 10.25 mi
Biking = 1060.8 miles
Running = 141.8 miles

Little Break

For no particular reason, I took a bit of a break from blogging.  For part of it, I still continued with my regular workouts and just tracked them in my Garmin Connect account.  But for a little over a week of it, I did nothing except sit on my ass and think of excuses not to get out and move.  Before that became a habit, I accepted the invitation today to run with my friend Susan. 

She is coming off a stress fracture in her foot so she hasn't been running, but she was game for a few miles - probably more than I was.  It wasn't too hot, but the humidity still had us sweating.  We were testing out a course for a 5K our school is going to host in mid-Sept.  We talked about the fact that the planning hasn't gone quite as desired, but we got a general feel for where the start, turn around and end will be.  It is hilly - very representative of the terrain in our town.  She thinks maybe we actually use that and market the epic-ness of this 5K. 

In addition to this 3.1 miles:

- Week ago Tuesday: Run with Stacy to Walmart (3.2 mi)
- Week ago Monday: Run with daughter to Stacy's house and back (3.3 mi)
- Almost 2 weeks ago (Saturday): Bike ride solo to Kleffner Ridge and back (25.1 mi)

Got all the way dressed and ready to leave this last weekend for a long ride with Walter, but then saw he had texted about a big storm cell that was coming and bailed.  It wasn't raining yet here and I started to go out on my own, but decided to sit on my butt instead.  Not sure what was up with that.

I turn 40 on Sunday.  Susan kicked my butt into committing to Kicks in the Sticks trail run this weekend (though I'm pussing out and doing the short 3.5 miles).  Tomorrow night, I'm going out to celebrate with dinner at Jazz and dueling pianos in Columbia.  Saturday morning I had planned on doing a mid-range bike ride, but Walter is doing a longer ride with someone else so I'm not sure if I will motivate myself out of bed to do it or not.  Probably going to take the kids to the pool (last day it is open - hate how early they close here!) on Sunday though Walter invited me for a shorter ride then.  We'll see how it plays out.

Swimming = 9.56 mi
Biking = 1027.5 miles
Running = 138.5 miles