Happy Birthday to me!!!

So I had a bit of...um... reluctance about turning 30. There's a certain amount of leeway you get when you are young. You get a second glance even in the most regrettable of outfits. You can do silly things and it's cute instead of just plain weird. You have to do less physical maintenance.

(sigh)

Goodness knows 30 isn't old but I feel like I'm certainly pushing the boundaries of "young" and creeping uncomfortably close to "middle age". Please save me. Please continue to think I'm cute and overlook my outfits... Pretty please.

Anyway, no matter how much I lament my... um... age, here's a picture of the one person in the world who can make me forget all this nonsense:
(and she was even willing to wear, as my birthday present, the over-the-top-cute outfit I made Granny buy for one dollar.)




(It had little bloomers with a bell sewn in them :-)


And here's a picture she took of me. All by herself!


We had a good weekend doing spur of the moment things:
Sat) Decided at 4pm to drive to Columbia and see Stacy's new house. Went to a de-lic-ious authentic Mexican restaurant. Yum.
Sun) Slept in. Ate a yummy brunch with Mimi after which she took Anna to spend the afternoon with her. Continued to read Harry Potter in my jammies till 3pm. Decided last minute to see the Harry Potter movie and go out to dinner. Went to bed a happy girl.

And to finish the birthday post, here are 30 things you might not know about me:
1) Motherhood is WAY different than I thought and I love it!
2)I'm a triathlete (OK. That one was cheating.)
3)I like to exercise but typically have to be in a class or I won't get up and go.
4)I still think I might be famous someday. (Got plenty of time.)
5)Weak men tend to be scared of me, which is just silly
6)I still harbor a crush on Ralph Macchio (The Karate Kid).
7)I love reading. Pretty much anything but nonfiction.
8)I'm one of those saps for World Peace and a healthy planet. Yep. I am.
9)On that note, I helped bring curbside recycling to Jeff City!
10)I still think farts are funny and I hope I always will.
11)I can sing all the words to many, many songs but can tell you the artists and titles to almost none of them.
12)I stink at knowing facts about history.
13)I'm embarrassingly bad at geography but have made several attempts to learn over the years.
14)I'm currently trying to get over a fear of flying.
15)This is related to two bouts of anxiety I had in my mid-twenties that I learned so, so much from and am tempted to say I'd do all over again if given the choice.
16)I LOVE to swim! Love it.
17)I've been in the following musicals: Sound of Music(x2), Annie, South Pacific, Annie Get Your Gun, Fiddler on the Roof, Bye Bye Birdie, Oliver, and GeorgeM! I'm sure I'll do some more. They are addictive.
18)I wanted nothing to do with politics until Bush. Now I'm obnoxious about it.
19)I'm a sucker for Red Lobster.
20)I'm a feminist and will be until it's logical to be an equalist.
21)Red wine is my drink of choice. Red, red wine... (I could sing all that one as well. Can't tell you who wrote it.)
22)I love to dance. Anytime, anyplace. (One of those things that just starts to look creepy at a certain age. I need to get my wiggles out now.)
23)I don't have an enemy. I like people too much. They give me energy!
24)I cried so hard once during Miss Saigon that the front of my shirt was wet. I wonder how i'd react now as a mom. Sheesh!
25)I never got into Seinfeld. I think it was silly.
26)I'm on a crazy religious/spiritual journey that is making me a bigger person but that is taking longer than I thought.
27)I like riding my bike a night. In the dark. It's only me and the wind, baby!
28)I can't eat too much chocolate. I LOVE it, but it needs to be ON something, not THE something (unless it's a small square of dark chocolate. Then it's ON!)
29)I have an ever-growing amount of self-knowledge and that has made life sooo much easier.
30)I feel blessed everyday!

I could come up with a lot more but enough about me! Thanks for reading!

Borrowing other blogs:

Please see Kayla's post here for triathlon pics!

And here for pics from our visit to see Kipp and Kylie.

ahthankyouverymuch!

And the new lead result:

TWO.
POINT.
OH.

Two point oh. Two point oh.
Gosh you know I love you so.

One week of fear. Of slight unrest
Makes me regret that FIRST damn test!



Hooray, Anna!

I'M A TRY-ATHLETE!

So I finished my first triathlon yesterday in a decent time of 1:26:02, finishing neck and neck with my friend CJ!

I'm glad I finished for two reasons:
1) I wanted to show I could finish a triathlon for my "tri"(30th)birthday and
2) A knee issue almost knocked me out of the race.

My knee had been bothering me towards the end of my training and sure enough one mile into the run (the final event) I began to feel that familiar pain under my kneecap. I toughed it out and tried denying it (doesn't that work for most things?) but at close to 1.5 miles I had to stop and limp. The knee started behaving again so I ran a bit more. At the halfway point, it gave out again. A few steps and unspoken curse words later, my leg. stopped. bending. I leaned on a mailbox and stretched and rubbed and stretched and rubbed and then, "POP" my kneecap clicked. Instead of being alarmed I thought "Whoohoo!" and took off. I walked a bit and when I realized it wasn't hurting, I started running. It was like night and day. I tore up the last mile of my run and finished with a giant smile of my face.

When I get the pictures, I'll post them here so you'll have to come back and check.

The other good story (and also one that is SO ME) is that I got so excited at the end of the bike run because I was doing so well and because the super fans (mom, dad, Emily, Molly, Mary R., Kayla O., Baby Maddie, KG, Curt and Anna) were yelling for me, I drove right past the exit. I realized it suddenly and veered to the right causing some poor girl on a bike to slam on her brakes (to the unnamed victim of my Maria-ishness I do humbly apologize) to avoid me barreling into her. Instead, I circled into oncoming traffic and pedaled back to the exit. The best part: Mary got it on video so when I get it, you'll see it too!

So... I'd like to say that since I have completed a triathlon I don't have to do another one, but I have that itchy "I can do better" feeling that my fellow athletes are familiar with. Truly, without the missed exit, time lost in my second transition stretching to avoid the knee injury that ended up happening anyway, and time lost to the knee injury, my time would've ROCKED for a first triathlon. So we'll see. In the meantime, feel free to be proud. Whoohoo!

To Emily and Aaron on running the BIX next weekend: I'm proud of you and so happy it isn't ME!

WHAT????

Ok so we're good parents. The house is baby-proofed. Anna watches maybe an hour of TV PER WEEK and it's always her precious Cinderella. She eats a well-balanced diet and is at a good weight and is off the charts developmentally in all things.

So you'll forgive my Crazy Mom Moment when I hear this on the answering maching this morning, "Your daughter's lead level is slightly elevated and we need you to get an venous draw as soon as possible."

WHAT?????

I called, trying to hide the fear and disbelief in my voice and asked, "What, exactly, do you mean my elevated?"

We're talking a 17!!!!

So, after an epsiode of tears from both Curt and I (give us a break, we're first time parents) and after I saw all Anna's hopes of college going down the toilet in a wash of ADHD and behavior problems, I came to my senses and realized HOW OFTEN these tests show false positives. Not to mention that all we have to do is remove the offending lead from her precious baby world if it is still elevated and the problem may go away.

I ignored my churning stomach and the fear of another unsuccessful blood draw (see THIS blog entry for that sad tale) and geared up for another trip.

One giant sucker,
One successful blood draw from a very wonderful flabotomist (sp?),
One short debate between Curt and I on the chemical abbreviation for lead (Curt was right, as usual)
And one big ice cream cone finished off almost entirely by Anna (including the cone - her favorite part)
And we are awaiting the results.

Cross your fingers.

More happy 4th!!!

Please see Auntie Em's wonderful blog for more pics and information about our Fourth of July visit!

Happy Fourth!!!

We had an absolutely wonderful fourth of July. The fam came to Jefferson City (eliminating the need for us to come to THEM but carrying on the Sides family tradition of bringing WAY too many cars - four total.)

We lounged around on Friday visiting and working on our "float" for the parade the next morning. Then we headed over to Tom and Becky's for some good eats and some serious snap n' pop stompin! Sophie, Michelle, and Clive came for the fun. We hung out until the neighbor's big fireworks display started around 9pm. The most exciting part of the evening was the two ridiculously dangerous "lantern" fireworks and Russell's homemade "sparkler bomb". The bomb part pretty much desribes how it turned out. For future reference, if Russell ever says, "I made it myself!", don't eat it OR light it! Anna conked out shortly after 9:30 (da da duuuum) AT Tom and Becky's where we left her so she could wake up with her cousins Ben and Molly.

We woke up the next day and headed over to Sophie and Michelle's neighborhood where they shut the street down for a little parade. It was so much fun! A "good guy" (cop) led the parade with his lights on and Russell's jeep headed up the rear blasting patriotic music from a boom box sitting on the roof! I think there should've been a prize for best float because we would've nailed it!

Here are some pics: