Ridiculous

We had some family photos taken and she gave me 10 or so "edited" images and hundreds of original images.    We look so ridiculously happy in all of them, I wish I could just sit and look through them all day everyday. I honestly don't feel ridiculously happy hardly ever.  Imagine that!  LOL!   I definitely let my job, my family, and my child stress me out WAYYYY more than I should.  I realize that I should count my blessings and not take anything for granted.  It is just tough sometimes and my subconscious needs some constant reminders:  We are healthy.  We have jobs.  We have family.

 Actually, life is ridiculously great.  

 
And in other news, we are MOVING!  We weren't really "looking" per say, but the "light house house" went up for sale so we jumped [a house I run by and admire daily with a lighthouse in the back yard].  We are so blessed and sooooooooo excited!

1000 more sq feet and MUCH further off the road [safer] than our current house

this baby lights up at night AND the back yard has a gazebo! and outdoor fireplace!  and wood patio!  YAY!

Dadda Daycare

Came home to this tonight.  Today was Dadda Day.  Nuff said.

Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: 8 Hour Adventure Race

this is what a checkpoint is; kinda like a geocache ;)

Have you ever heard of an adventure race?  

 "Adventure racing (also called expedition racing) is a combination of two or more endurance disciplines, including orienteering (if an orienteering map is used) and/or navigation (when non-orienteering maps are used), cross-country running, mountain biking, paddling and climbing and related rope skills. An expedition event can span ten days or more while sprints can be completed in a matter of hours. There is typically no suspension of the clock during races, irrespective of length; elapsed competition time runs concurrently with real time, and competitors must choose if or when to rest" says Wikipedia.  

Back in mid August, I stumbled upon this race but wasn’t convinced I wanted to do it.  8 hours is a looong time.  What in the heck is orienteering anyhow?  Swimming in late September?  At 8 AM?  No thanks! 

Well, what an adventure it was.  The race course was a secret until the day of the race.  I had no idea what I was in for!  The biking was EXTREMELY hilly and had you find 2 “checkpoints” on the way to the bike shop, 17 miles away.  From there, we had to run 3 miles to the canoe launch point [which happened to be the same place we launched for the triathlon a few weeks before].   After canoeing  3 miles, it was back to the Wilderness Center  for more adventures.  You had to go to the planetarium on the site where an expert star gazer had you identify things, you had to visit the rock walk to identify types of rocks, you had to climb a fire tower via a cable ladder [caving club volunteers there], you had to collect plants in a baggie throughout the day that expert plant ladies graded you on at the end, you had to answer math questions, and then of course the orienteering course where you went around with only a compass and map to locate up to 23 checkpoints in the woods.    Whoever found the most by 4 pm won.  

Oh and they cancelled the swimming part due to cold temps.  Yay!

PS Almost forgot, right before the race started they told us we had one more thing to do: carry an egg with us all day!  LOL!

All in all, we survived, were EXHAUSTED, bleeding, and itchy [lots of bushwacking], and we got 2^nd place to a team that had quite a bit more athleticism and experience than us [the girl can run a 4:50 mile and the boy does adventure races pretty much all the time] .  We only lost by 1 checkpoint so I’d say we did OK!   We estimated that we ran between 10 and 13 miles and we biked 35.  I might be closer to that half ironman than I originally thought [it is on my bucket list].  

FarmChick Friday!

My little harvester.....

the outfit almost dominates this photo LOL

These are all for selling!  We probably have 120 "prizewinners" [a variety], 65 "polar bears", and also carving pumpkins, squash, and pie pumpkins.

Fair Season

this fair stuff tires a guy out!

don't touch that, blaine, it is $460,000

got my pumpkin doughnut in my hand.  life is good.

local donut place makes the donuts right there at the fair. pumpkin doughnuts too!

not fair related but impressive.  potato harvest 2012.

Our county fair was in late August and the next county over a week later.  We visit both every year.  NOTHING IS BETTER THAN GOING TO THE FAIR!   Blaine had a blast, I had a blast, and it is definitely just one of those traditions I live for.    From the 4-H peanut butter milkshakes, to the fuzzy cows, bunny barn, art building, veggies, flowers, band shows, freebies, oh my. Too much fun stuff to name!

Prayers for a "Stranger"

Not sure when I started reading Elizabeth's blog but know I've been reading it since at least Nov 2010.  Bloggers are strangers yet friends.  Well, this was probably the saddest thing I've ever read on a blog.   Sad isn't the right word. Tragic, horrifying, unfair, want-to-scream, need-to-sob, sort of news.  Please pray for Elizabeth, Grayson, and their whole family for strength while they travel the unknown road ahead.

Massillon Triathlon

This has been the race I've been looking forward to all year.  In its inaugural year, it consisted of a 5.5 mile run [broken in 2 parts], a 3 mile kayak, and a 12 mile bike ride.  Best part?  HOMETOWN RACE!  The running was on a trail I run on several times a week [an old canal towpath that has been converted to a bike path], then we hopped into our boats approximately 1 mile from my house, and the bike route was on super scenic local country roads.  

I was pretty nervous going in because I had no idea "what type of people" would enter this race.  Ex:  I know I can survive 5.5 miles of running but I also know I can't do it nearly as fast as I wish I could.  So if some super fast runners were entered, I knew I would have trouble making up ground.

Looking around the morning of the race, Nick and I both got the "oh crap" feeling.  People just looked more "in shape" than they had in the last race, LOL.   We always look around and say things like "they look FASSSST" about other people.  We said that a lot that morning!

Turns out we really didn't have a lot to worry about!  I kept tabs on where I was at during the run, and when I hopped in my boat, I knew I was the 5th female.  Turns out that 2 of the girls in front of me were in teams [when I passed them in canoes with their team-mates, I figured it out], and the other 2 in front of me were individuals that were slow at kayaking.  One had a slow transition into her boat and I actually launched in front of her and the other one I passed in the first 100 yards on the river.  There was no looking back from there!  After passing several more guys on the river, and running to where the bikes are, a race official told me I was in 6th place overall, and the 1st female.  She said, "GO PASS SOME MORE!"  So I did!  I passed three more guys on the biking section for a 3rd place overall finish!  

I'm way more excited about getting 3rd overall than I am for getting 1st female.  Plus you have to factor in that the guy who won does Ironman's.  He's doing Ironman Hawaii in a few weeks!  Freaky fast.  Nick ended up 2 minutes behind me, for 5th place overall.   The local newspaper had the triathlon on the front page and I got quoted a few times in the article so that was neat. Nick admitted it was the first time he's ever been in the newspaper for an athletic event in his whole life. LOL.

Looking ahead, we are going to do an 8 hour adventure race on Sept 23rd that includes a 30 mile bike ride, 3 mile canoe, swimming, and orienteering.  SHOULD BE INTERESTING!