oh Doc Nate!

everyone; this is my chiroprator! pretty sure i cant explain the picture.

what happens at girls weekend stays at girls weekend

Like every summer, i get together with some really close and 'stable' girl friends of mine from college. This trip we decided to hit Sara's husbands parents cabin...did ya follow that! we left late Friday night just in time to chat for a couple hours and than got ready for bed. i got the pleasure of sleeping with heather- my most 'fun' roommate! she and i both had (have) colds and thought we'd do a lot of coughing together. it was a small bed; my feet hung over the end of the bed! and every time we moved the whole bed moved. every time we coughed the whole bed moved. it was a great time! Saturday we spent the whole day doing nothing. ok, maybe not nothing. we went for a long walk, eat some lunch, laid out on the dock and took in the sun, floated on our tubs, eat some more, read some magazines, talked about relationships (come on...we are women here , or course men was our main topic), eat some more, and laughed a lot. That evening we took a car ride to Spicer and had ourselves some dinner at Melvins on Green Lake. I had whalley. came back- watched a movie and than got a wide hair and did something that only us girls get to know. Thus; 'what happens at girls weekend stays at girls weekend' - Right Girls!?

Sunday we lounged around, drink lots of coffee and finished up our weekend together. I so enjoy my time with these ladies. They have been a massive part of my life and i pray they will continue to be! regardless if they are 'stable' or not. (inside joke). love you girls.

$4.38

DEAL OF THE SUMMER....OK, SO THIS ISN'T THE BEST PICTURE OF THIS BUT MY FRIEND NICKI AND WERE SHOPPING A BIT LAST NIGHT AND I CAME ACROSS THIS HEAD BAND THINGY FOR ONLY $4.38. MAJOR DEAL. IT LOOKS SUPER DUPER CUTE IN MY HAIR AND I HAVE A YELLOW SHIRT IT WILL GO PERFECTLY WITH. I AM EXCITED TO WEAR IT. JUST THOUGHT I'D SHARE MY DEAL OF THE SUMMER WITH YOU.

My Small Group-

i love my small group bible study. they rock! we meet on Monday nights, usually to do Bible study. But this week we needed a break from studying and had ourselves some fun. we took our softball gear and a basketball and walked down the road from Anna's house to the park. we started out with softball....and we all took turns batting. it was a hoot! it finally got to dark that we had to stop, not cuz we wanted to. but- since we spent the whole time playing softball we had no time to shoot the ball around. i was a little bummed out cuz i was ready and willing to take them all on. oh well, next time.

on the way home...jen and anna were messing around with the ball and i had to get them on camera. this is what turned out. good times. jen with the ball, anna just being anna...full of life and smiles! that night as i went to bed i pulled out my journal and wrote for the first time in a long time a 'thankful' journal. i only wrote about things i am thankful for- no prayer requests or things i am struggling with, just thankful thoughts. i will share what i wrote about my small group.

'i love my small group. tonight we just hung out and played. it was so fun, just being with people you enjoy, people you can be silly with- yet normal with. People that challenge you to see God in things; in a bigger way and how to help you make changes in your life. People that pray for you and care about your life's journeys. People you can cry with and laugh with and be mad at and know that the next day they will still be standing firm for you. People that wonder how your day went and ask you....and than find ways to encourage you or celebrate with you. People that bring something different to the table....all have different backgrounds and upbringings and different view points. People that can debate with you! People you can make fun of and they back at you...and you know everyone is kidding. I really like my small group. I am so thankful that God pulled me towards them and they 'allowed' me to join. I am growing to cherish my Monday nights and wish sometimes that every night was a Monday night! Go team!

golf with Julie

i don't think i have been golfing since the college course i HAD to take in college, which was like 10 years ago. I don't have clubs and i have no idea on the how to's of golf. but julie ross-boss, who works at a golf course and who played on the golf team at NWC last year (and the basketball team), invited me over to her course to take me. i was willing of course, and ready to learn. it was a beautiful afternoon; sunny but not at all hot so we could actually enjoy being out on the course in the sun. my first hole was horrible, laughable even. i think it took me 5 swings before i actually made contact with the small stupid white ball. the dude behind me told me 'don't worry, you can only get better.' the ball went like 30 feet out in front of me...so julie kindly offered..' maybe we should play best ball', which means we hit the ball that is closest to the hole. so we walked by mine picked it up and moved onto hers. putting for sure is the best thing i got going for myself.- must be all that mini-golf i play. anyhow...

i think in the 4th hole i actually made good contact with the ball and it even went in the air- and a long ways. so....some holes we played best ball and some holes we played our own ball. this hole julie actually hit hers into the bunker and i wanted to try to hit it out...so we played her ball even though my ball was better. i think out of the 9 holes we played i hit 4 of them into the air. yes, i know- i suck! but it was fun. and julie is so fun to hang with. so...thats my golfing story.

men in tights!

i got a call early afternoon yesterday from my friend Jill who had pre-season tickets for the viks game and wanted to know if i was up for a night out watching 'men in tights'. i was a 'for sure'. so....much to my surprise these free tickets she got from work were the best seats ever!!!! lower deck row 36....and as you can see right behind the in zone. of course, these seats were surrounded by season ticket holders so everyone knew everyone. we had some crazy fellows sitting right in front of us that had no problem getting to know the people around them. their names were Danny and John and man oh man, they were way more entertaining than the men in tights playing football. Danny was a player....the smooth harmless sort, but still a player! at one point he leaned back and said to me, "you have the biggest, brightest, blue eyes i've ever seen in my life". wow- i thanked him and blinked my bright blue eyes as many times as i could. later that evening as he and john headed out for the 3rd time to get yet another beer- i said, "hey Danny, dont forget my water this time." he looked at me and said, "did i forget it last time?" Yes, Danny you did!" "Ok, no problem! I wont forget this time." Now, i need to fill you in one something. I had not asked Danny for a water at all...i just pretended I had so that he would think he forgot it; i wanted to make him feel bad so i could score a free water. why not, right!!! i can be a player too!!!!!! tickets, free water...it was a good night. Danny did return with a water in his hand, along with another beer and some nachos. he shared his nachos! it was fun. Jill and Jenny found it very entertaining! it was a good time. as for the the men in tights....they lost in the last 2 seconds of the game, the other team scored a field goal! doesn't surprise me! anyways. i wanted to get a picture of danny, but he moved on to a red head down the row with bright red lip stick that i am sure asked for a beer instead of a water. like i said before, he was smooth!

A FRIDAY SPENT IN STILLWATER!

the day before i went to stillwater with Jill and Jen. Jen has an appointment there and Jill and I thought it would be fun to go along. So, Jill and I spent the morning sitting in a cute little coffee house reading our Bibles, drinking coffee and chatting here there! Jill is so sweet! I am just getting to know her better and have found her to be an inspiration! she is so solid in her faith and seems to be so passionate about everything she does! I enjoy her solidness.....

After Jen joined us and enjoyed her cup of decaf Mexicano something or another and spent a couple minutes chatting with us we decided it would be fun to walk the streets of downtown Stillwater. We found some interesting things: most the little shops bring their pets to work. Dogs and cats, whatever! and you get to pet the animals. so....that was fun! Jill and Jen found a plastic spoon-fork that they all got for their hiking adventure they are going on next weekend. We than decided to go down my the water and take a look there and of course had to get in some pics. After that we hit a cute little sandwich place for lunch and than went to the batting cages for swing away; we were preparing for our softball games that evening! anyways - it was a good day in stillwater!

pics of chisago lakes tri

first- i want to wish my cousin jason and my older brother chris very happy birthday's.

pics to share of the TRI.

finishing up the swim. 12:36 something.....

finishing up the 20.5 mile bike. i caught the dude in front of me just as we pulled in...needed to pass just one more person! hehehehe. felt so good about the bike - 1 hour 8 minutes

the sucky run with the pulled hamstring, and lets just say i did not pass the person(s) in front of me. mostly got passed....it's called being humbled!

crossing the finish line....not my real time in the back ground. ya see. my freind sara who was running the camera didnt make it back in time to snap my real live finish, so we re-enacted. smiles for everyone! finish time was 2hours 15 minutes, or something close to that. check my other blog, it has all the details.

my beloved, rock solid supporters. ben, who really does likes us- he just doesnt look it in this photo....jen who one day will due a tri i am sure of it, and sara- who walked/ran the 3.2 painful miles with me to keep my head up and my legs moving. i might have given up without her. rock solid supporters!!!!!
just had to enclose this photo- thought it was a darn good pic.

Chisago Lakes Tri

NOTE: PICTURES TO COME

this past Sunday was the chisago lakes tri...my all time favorite one to take part in. it was the first TRI i took part in last summer when i became a TRI athlete! goodness!!! and the week before it God really wanted to get my attention. last Tuesday i pulled my hamstring while out on a nice short slow jog with a friend. at first i didn't think much of it- it didn't really hurt that bad. that is until i woke up the next morning and couldn't walk. so- spent the next couple of days trying to heal and stay off the leg in high hopes that i would be fine for the TRI. Friday i went for a trial jog and lasted 3 minutes...not a good sign. Saturday morning i woke up and had a small fever and a head cold. Nice timing! the fever i didn't really care about but the head cold and the cough that started could be a issue for race day. so...again, i laid low all day and hoped and hoped that I'd be ok come Sunday morning.
Sunday morning.....still had a cold but seemed to kill it for the time being with enough drugs. the leg on the other hand was going to be a challenge. so- i set my mind to doing the best i could do on the swim and the bike and just figure out the run when it came.
the swim was good. 1/4 mile in 12:00 minutes. although a bunch of us racer all agreed that it was longer than a 1/4 mile. i used zero legs while swimming and hoped if i saved them I'd be able to bike hard and maybe, just maybe, run! i kicked (excuse the word) ass on the bike. 20.5 miles in 1 hour and 8 minutes...which means i averaged about 19.3 miles per hour. i was very happy with that. compared to last years tri i took about 11 minutes off my bike time! than the run. i knew once i got off the bike that running was going to be nearly impossible. my good friends Jen, Sara and Ben came along to watch and support me. Sara started to walk the 3.1 miles with me. at about mile 1 i decided to to try to jog. went for about 3-4 minutes and got a cramp in my lower butt....Sara had to rub it out! it hurt so bad i actually was in tears....and for those of you that know me it takes a lot to bring tears to my eyes. so we walked til mile 2.1....and i looked at Sara and said..."i am finishing this thing in under 50 minutes, i don't care how bad it hurts. so we took off jogging. i am pretty sure i cried most of the time, and had a cramp in my leg the whole time- but managed to finish the run portion in 48 minutes. which is a horrible time, but i knew it was going to be. total- i finished the whole TRI in 2 hours 15 minutes. my goal was to finish under 2 hours. but- i guess!!!!! i will give myself a little slack. I know God is teaching me something- i am just not sure what it is yet. i was humbled....and thankful that i finished. and was very happy with my swim and bike...just got work on that run! anyhow. pics to come!