I spent the night last night hanging out with my daddy. We talked and laughed and shot pool together. He knew about the sequel and was happy for us. He laughed about the turkey’s shenanigans. I yelled at him for leaving a day too early. We hugged fiercely when it was time for him to go and Eskimo kissed until my nose hurt. I woke up feeling his presence… And his absence. I miss that man so much but I’m grateful that he reaches out to me when I need him most.
The turkey has been doing better lately about giving out kisses when prompted. He’ll even give me an Eskimo kiss occasionally when I ask (and man do I wish my dad was here to see that!). Last night, while we were saying bedtime prayer, he kept hitting me in the ear. I didn’t know what he was trying to do. I thought he was just playing with my ear. I finally figured out that he was trying to turn my head so that he could kiss my cheek. Just because he wanted to. Cue tears.
I dreamt about my dad last night. He came to me and asked me to write down a letter to my sister and me. I was upset because I was out walking with the turkey so I had nothing to write with. I tried grabbing the diaper pad and ointment tube but, obviously,that didn’t work very well. Just like a phone call with him, daddy was talking talking talking and I couldn’t keep up even if I had a way of capturing it all. I tried so hard to pay attention; I wanted so badly to remember every word. When I woke up, all I had was a few little snippets and a sense of calm – no tears for a change. I remember him saying that he was good and he felt wonderful. I know he elaborated on that but, for the life of me, I just can’t catch it. The clearest thing I remember was him asking me to tell my sister how proud he was of us and our kids. He said we all made his life worth living. Mostly, I remember the feeling of his love and of my love for him.
It was so good to talk to you again, daddy. Until next time…
I’ve wanted a tattoo for always. sadly, i’m highly practical and never could bring myself to desecrate my body unless it really meant something to me on a deeply personal level. I’ve had ideas over the years but, obviously, none of them struck me enough to make me go out and do it. fast forward to hubby signing up for ironman and committing to get the mdot tattoo. the pressure was on; if I was going to get inked with my hubby, I was going to have to find my muse. all year, I struggled with ideas. I came up with one that I was very close to committing to but then, when I was printing pix from our holy land trip last year, it hit me. while we were in England, we visited ely cathedral with our friends and there was a sculpture that I fell in love with.
Jonathan Clarke's massive cast-aluminium sculpture "The Way Of Life" inside Ely Cathedral which "reminds us that life is far from straightforward. Along its many twists and turns Christ travels with us from darkness to the light of the cross."
and just like that, months after my baptism, I knew I had found my tattoo. so last night, my hubby and I finally got inked! I had been warned by everyone that I know that foot tattoos are super painful. either mine was simple enough or my pain threshold is high enough that it really wasn’t a big deal at all. I would rate it at a 3 on a 1-10 pain scale. it probably went up to a 4 for an hour or so when I started walking on it but still nothing like I imagined. it was an interesting experience and i’m so excited about the result.
we’re taking a couple of days off next week to loafer around in the mountains after hubby’s hilly bike race. about a week after ironman, we’ll be celebrating with a Jamaican all-inclusive resort with friends. and today i booked a cruise for December. so excited about all of the fun down-time we’ve got to look forward to over the next couple months. there is a bright light at the end of this training tunnel!
Sunday, I publically declared my acceptance of Jesus Christ as my savior and redeemer by being baptized. It was an incredible site… a huge crowd of people gathered at the beach to show their love for God and each other. I was one of 137 who were plunged into the gulf to be brought back up cleansed of our sins. I was blessed to have all of our local friends there to share the day with me and one of them was even part of my baptism team! I came up from the water completely overwhelmed with emotion and all I wanted was to wrap my arms around my husband and share the love I felt.
“this is amazing grace! this is unfailing love! that you would take my place, that you would bear my cross. you would lay down your life, that I would be set free… Jesus, I sing for all that you’ve done for me!
– bethel live”
I signed up today to get baptized and I’m super excited. I grew up in the church but I never saw it lived at home so I rejected organized religion and rebelled against faith in general. It took me 32 years but I finally understand what it is to believe in something and have it change you. God has been working His changes in me slowly for the last few years through my oldest nephew. I don’t even think that I realized it was happening until our trip to Israel. It was a huge surprise to me. I only really wanted to go because it was so important to hubby (and because I’m all about seeing new places). I figured it would be a neat place with pretty churches and lots of history. It was all of that but what I didn’t expect was to leave there with a yearning in my heart for God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and a desire to learn how to build a personal relationship with Him. Next month, my sins will be washed away and I’ll be a new me!
i actually had one more post i wanted to backdate but i really needed to post about tonight’s run so i have to jump current. tonight was… fantastic! the weather was gorgeous. the sun was shining but the fall breeze buffered it and it was already starting to set when i was on my way back. i don’t know why but i just felt good. from start to finish. even though i was having terrible wardrobe malfunctions. which makes no sense because i’ve never had problems with this skort (i’m used to it with the other two because they are still too small for me) but tonight the shorts kept riding up constantly. it was annoying and slowed me down but it didn’t bring my mood down. i kept a good, even pace all the way over and was at 18:49 when i turned around, a little less than a minute shorter than my “first split” last week. i walked for about a minute going back up (mostly because i was having such fits with my skort) but otherwise “ran” the whole thing. and i felt great. no pain, no discomfort. i was breathing heavy but not uncomfortably so and my throat got a bit dry so i was happy to see the water table on my way back (oh yeh, i walked another 30-40 seconds there). i even saw dolphins in the bay. i’ve never seen anything out there but birds and boats. i had the biggest, goofiest grin on my face watching those dolphins come toward the bridge and disappear under me. i did some uphill sprints and i was feeling so good on my way back that i was able to pick up my pace the rest of the way after the water stop. i even sprinted the last little piece after crossing the red light. my time tonight was 38:34. i finally broke forty, on my own, and i did so by a minute and a half!!! that averages out to almost a twelve-flat pace. over the bridge! i was showing my watch off to everyone. i really didn’t even feel like i had pushed myself. most importantly, i enjoyed myself. truly. i had a fun run tonight! i never thought i’d feel that way about an activity that i spent my whole life despising.
i did it… i swam a full mile today!!! that’s thirty laps in the pool in just fifty-two minutes. i have been so stinking proud of myself all afternoon! and, strangely, a little bit sore. go me!!!
i did it. i ordered the first new camera to fill in for my dearly departed. yes, my beloved camera was so special that it will take two to replace her. since it is summer and the kayaking and surf-learning is in full swing, our immediate need is for a waterproof camera.
we had a waterproof housing for the old one and it worked wonderfully, but it wasn’t very convenient. first, it was an extra thing to have to carry. second, you had to clean and grease the o-ring before each use. and then there was just the super bulkiness of it. not that it’s a bad solution… since you can get a housing for pretty much any camera, you can definitely have a much better camera for underwater use… but it’s just not an easy, spur-of-the-moment kind of thing. as such, this time we decided to get two cameras, one for underwater and everyday use and one for real photography.
i had pretty much decided on the olympus 1030sw but i had trouble pulling the trigger on it. see, i’ve always been a canon girl; i don’t know anything about olympus but they seem to have all of the waterproof cameras and canon had, well, none… until now. a couple weeks ago i was set to suck it up and order the olympus when i saw that canon had finally released their own u/w model. i’ve been mulling it over and then, today, my cousin-in-law sent me a link to a one-day-only sale promotion for the canon d10. it was meant to be! i can’t wait for it to get here!!!
this is my kayak that i paid for in blood: ironically enough, it is one of the ones that was in our final cuts from this weekend’s shopping. i’m thinking of calling the store (same store we had seen it, skew is still on the kayak) to see whether they will do returns without a “gift receipt”. don’t get me wrong, i am thrilled to pieces with it. but on the unlikely chance that they will do a return, we can take the money and go get the super nice kayaks that we really want but they’re more expensive and we hated to spend so much since we’d need two of them. with what this kayak cost, it would cover most of the better one and we won’t feel so bad buying them. but, i’m also a realist and am very doubtful that the store will give us money for it. i figure, if they’ll do a return at all, they’ll want to give us store credit and there’s nothing else in that store we would buy. either way, i’ve got a kayak and i’m pleased as punch!
you’ll never guess in a million years what just happened… i won a KAYAK!!! apparently, when we gave blood the other day, they were doing a drawing amongst the donors for a kayak . i recall them mentioning it in passing when we were almost done there but i never thought anymore about it because, let’s face it, i’m not a winner. and, actually, while hubby was talking with the woman and said i won a kayak, i was racking my brain to remember where that whole discussion even took place. anyhow, we’ll be going to pick it up after work this afternoon and i’m looking forward to seeing it (please, please please, let it be small enough to fit in the elevators!). i’m so excited. i don’t win things. especially things i really want. you know, since we’ve been kayak shopping for the last several weekends and were really close to buying two of them. yay for blood-letting!!!
