Still A Work In Progress

Training, planning, preparing and collecting gear is how I've been spending my time. I can't say every day has been great but most of them are pretty dang exciting. My family is getting more awesome and healthy every day. I am so very proud of all of us. Soon we will be a well oiled machine. :)

Bloomsday was a month ago and we continued our tradition of doing it as a family for a third year in a row now. 

Josh and I had considered trying to run it, but the girls really wanted to have us all do it together, and I was fine with that.

 Biking continues to be a favorite activity for all of us. 

Mothers day? Family bike ride sounds perfect!

 Bad day? Biking will fix that!

Visiting friends or family? Bike will get you there!

Feel like exploring? Do it on a bike!

Afternoon workout? Bikes are best!

Commute to work? Biking could save you tons of money! 

OK, so I don't do this, but Josh has recently started to. And his commute is 12.3 miles each way. I think he's pretty impressive and I'm super jealous he gets to do this.

Also we have been spending a good amount of time gearing up for our long distance ride later this summer. I now have quite the collection of maps for trails, forest service service roads and highways. We have even been out a few times scouting the roads and campgrounds and determining the best route to take. While the route still has some finalizing to be done, one thing is sure, it is going to be an incredible journey!

 Somewhere in all the planning, the research and the training we were able to sneak out for a double date for dinner and theater. I have to say this because the soundtrack continues to dance through my ears and join me on many bike rides. WICKED is an absolutely fantastic show, and I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Then recently I had the opportunity to join in with the Happiness Sprinkling Project and well, sprinkle happiness around downtown. I traded signs a couple times with the end goal of getting my hands on the "Free Hugs" sign. You see this was very much out of my comfort zone but I needed to prove something to myself. Hugs are funny to me. I'm not the kind of person who hugs anyone and everyone as I come and go. No, my hugs are more exclusive and saved for people I really care about or special occasions. Because of this, I have even been told on two different occasions that I do not seem like the kind of person you would hug. So there ya go. I clearly needed to hug some strangers. And I did. Lots of them. The quick hugs from younger guys, the overly perfume saturated hugs from the older ladies, the tiny squeezes from the little kids, the unsure hugs from older men and their wives, the long hug from someone in need, a tight hug from a fellow mom.....I got them all and more. And what do you know, their happiness rubbed off on me 10 fold! It was a really fun experience that I plan on recreating again in the future.

It's only fair to also share the other side too. Even with all this awesomeness, I'm still having some scattered hard days. Days where none of it seems like enough, days where all of it seems like too much, days where I'm beyond exhausted, days where I'm super stressed out, and days where I'm way too hard on myself. I can't say enough how much I appreciate my family for being patient with me. I'm still a work in progress.

But since today isn't even close to a bad day I'm going to celebrate! Eeeeeek! Tomorrow I will be in Portland carb loading for My First Tri the next day. Things really seemed to move along fast. I could have been stricter about sticking to the training outline, but I still did pretty darn good, so I'm not too worried. We did a full test run through last weekend and it went great. Sure there was a flat tire, a chain issue, a sudden rain shower joined by gusts of wind, aaaand I almost crashed once, but hey, that's what makes it exciting. ;) So bring it on! I'M READY!!!!!