IRONMAN

Eric completed his first Ironman on November 20, 2011

(almost exactly a month after the twins were born)

This is the only picture we have from the event. I was alone with both babies all day and never had a free hand to take any pictures of Eric as he raced the course. Most of the time I was nursing a baby or running from place to place trying to catch glimpses of him as he zoomed by. He was incredible and did an amazing job. Such a huge accomplishment!

utah half ironman

E raced in the UT Half Ironman the same weekend we were in Park City.  He rocked it! The goal was to complete it in under 5 hours and he came in at 4:56.

I love watching E race. Although this time, being 30 weeks pregnant with twins was a little hard on the body. But it was still great. I couldn't help but think of November when E does the AZ Ironman, the boys will get to see their dad race too.

Good job E, you inspire me!

he did it

Graduation weekend was great. On Friday there was a brunch put on by the MRED program. We ate good food, visited with good friends and awards were given out. I didn't bring the camera but there was a picture taken of E's class and I will definitely post it when I get my hands on it. My parents came into town Friday afternoon and we enjoyed the rest of the day with them. I also took my mom to my fav local fabric warehouse and we bought some fabric.

Saturday was E's graduation and thanks to Paige {my newest & favoritest friend who is the spouse of E's friend in the program} we scored some awesome seats. She was there early and saved them for us, so we were right up next to the MRED class. Graduation was nice because it was relatively short. Then we took pics and left.

We can't believe he is done. E is in denial, he wanted to go to class today. It is a little bittersweet. Sad to be moving on but change is good. Oh and he got two A+'s. Who gives A+'s, but we'll take it. I'm proud of you E, you are quite impressive.

confessions

i am not doing the triathlon anymore {insert disappointment here}.

it was dang expensive {$100} to enter the race.

because i am not doing the race, my training ended... total bummer that i am such a slacker {i was really enjoying the swimming}.

i am seeking some motivation again {someone help me...}.

i really need an exercise partner {E is not training at the moment, too busy with other endeavors}.

the other day i was telling E that i love how he is so open to different & new ideas.

he responded with, i love when you exercise {he's a funny one}.

only 4 more days of class left for E {he confessed to me that he is going to miss it}. i know, crazy, E miss school?

page me

E and i watched a million episodes of 24 over the weekend. when people kept getting into hairy situations i shouted at the screen, just text someone for help.

and then a whole slew of conversation took place about when 24 first aired and E claimed that text messaging didn't exist back then. i disagreed and doubted but then we did some research and started discussing it more. here's the facts: 24 debuted in November 2001. I was a junior in high school and E was on his mission. E says that when he left for his mission he was not texting and when he came back in 2003 it was what everyone was doing. I remember people texting in high school {i did not own a cell phone} but not that much. and when we started dating in the summer of 2003 we did text each other. so we concluded that it existed in 2001 but just wasn't popular yet. hence the 24 characters not texting in the show.

now here's when it got funny. E stated that when he was in high school him and his friends all used pagers to communicate. and then i laughed really hard for 5 minutes. he really did say that he used a pager in high school. oh i can't handle it, it's still making me laugh. for some reason the image of E and his friends paging each other is hilarious. it makes him sound so ancient.

and then it just kept getting better, he told me what kind of messages they'd page each other and how they each had their code number that they'd put at the end of a message, like bob was 808 because it looked like bob. i could go on but you get the idea.

we had some good laughs {especially me} and then watched a million more episodes of 24. we've watched 10 episodes in 2.5 days {it's ridiculous}. it reminds me of when we did this. so late last night after finishing another episode and staying up way too late, we made a pact with each other: only 1 episode/night.

splash and dash

Eric has done this race once or twice. It's a short swim in the Tempe Town Lake and a short run next to the lake. I got to go watch him once a couple weeks ago, it was fun. I always love watching Eric race.

28

my love had a birthday today
i made yellow cupcakes and they are good
we also played a little tennis

i bought him a 3 hole puncher, it was exciting

electrical issues and some curtains

When we moved in I was confused... none of the light switches went to anything. You'd flip a switch and nothing would happen{seriously in every room}. Some of the switches went to outlets, but if you don't want to have a lamp in every single room, they are useless... useless I tell you. All the rooms have fans, so we ended up having to pull the cords on the fixture to turn the fan/lights on or off. It got annoying very fast. So Eric took it upon himself to re-wire everything so that when you flipped the switches they turned the lights on/off{genius concept, I know}.

It took removing the fixtures, several trips into the hot attic{while it was 110+ degrees outside}, a little help from me, some new hardware, wiring, a couple electrical shocks, flipping the breakers a million times, living without lights for several days, replacing the fixtures and a lot of thinking & planning.

Eric did get a little advice from his brother and an electrician but ended up doing everything himself. Way to go Eric{read that last statement with a slight pause between each word, sounds much better}. And now it is magical, the switches actually turn things on and off. And it took me a while to get in the habit of using the switches again. For a while there I kept forgetting that they all worked and I would just do everything in the dark. It was quite comical.

These are the only pictures I took, not too exciting.
























If you noticed, there are different curtains in each picture, but it is the same room. There is a slider in the master bedroom and it lets in A LOT of light in the early morning hours. To make a long story short we bought and returned 7 sets of curtains until we found what worked best. In the beginning we just bought some that we liked which means they blocked out no light. Then we bought some that were supposed to block out light but they were extremely ugly and still didn't block out light. Then we got smart{after many trips to different stores} and we bought the curtains of our choice from Ikea and a blackout liner purchased online. The picture on the right is the end result and now we sleep well into the morning and it's fantastic.

ps-I didn't get the job as ASU. I know, serious bummer. But I have several other options in the works that I am excited about. Hopefully one of them leads to an ending I will be happy with.

first day

Eric started school yesterday. It’s pretty exciting! Here he is on his way out.
He rode his bike, even in this crazy heat.















You gotta love the first day of school picture.






















ps- I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with the amount of things I want to blog about. Then I re-read that statement and I laugh at myself. More to come on the progress of the house and what we've been up to.

our lovely little stump, check it out

There was a big tree in our backyard... a dead one. So Eric chopped it down. Then we were left with a big stump in our backyard. So this is {one of the many} things Eric did yesterday.

We rented a stump grinder and ground the stump away. It was actually pretty sweet. The thing was massive and I was mesmerized while watching it whack away at the stump.

Now we can move forward with our plans for the backyard!

making progress

We are getting close... it may not look like it but we are coming along. All the cabinet doors are back on! And now we're just going to do some touching up and then paint the walls. The color we chose is called Tony Taupe. In the picture on the right {the one with Eric in it} you can see some paint colors on the wall. We went with the one that is on the left. I am getting excited!

If you remember the picture of the backyard. There is a patio cover structure but no cover on it. We are priming and painting the structure and we bought a cover for it.

While Eric was outside priming it he found a tiny little friend. We named him Primer. He was the cutest baby lizard ever.

Here he is hanging out with Eric {on his right shoulder} keeping him company while he primed.

laugh, please

backstreet boys






















classic engagement or wedding picture

la marathon

he did it and he did it good.

ASU

Here we come Arizona. We can't wait to bask in your warmth.
We will miss you California, you have been good to us.

It's still hard for me to believe but it gets me so excited. Eric will start the Master of Real Estate Development program at ASU in August.

We are so excited for this new adventure. We have really come to enjoy the experience of living in a new city for both of us. We are thoroughly looking forward to doing it again.

Can't wait!!!!!

Grand Canyon

I had to post some of these pics from Eric's ATV trip to the Grand Canyon. It looked like a lot of fun.

I love this picture. When I saw it for the first time I just laughed. They found this old school house on part of their ride and went inside and this is what happened. You have to click on the picture to enlarge it and get the full affect and see their faces. The great part is they just put the camera on timer and this is what it captured. I don't think you could have staged it better.