Baby Projects

For the past few months I have been working on lots of baby projects to get our "nursery" ready for the baby.  My first project was a baby quilt.  I went with a brown and green monkey theme. This is only the second quilt I have ever made, so I couldn't have done it without the help and advice of my good friends Jenny and Tana. Thanks ladies! 

Here's the completed quilt.

 About a year ago I found a pink surfboard decoration in the dollar section at target and bought it to paint or "do something with" later.  I finally repainted it and turned it into a sign for the nursery door.  I made it to match the baby quilt and valences.

 Next, I made these blocks (also to match the rest of the decor). The first picture is the back of the blocks and the second and third pictures are the front of the blocks.

I also made these window valences to math the baby quilt.  No matter what I did I couldn't get the lighting in the room right to take a very good picture, so this is all I have.

And here is what I look like today - at 37 weeks and 4 days. I am getting tired and uncomfortable and we are going so excited for our baby boy to come! We can't wait!

37 weeks - Full Term!!

Progress: Weeks 12-17

Below are the miles (and now meters too since I started swimming again a few weeks ago) that I have run/biked/swam for weeks 12 through 17 of 2012. 

Week 12: Ran 27 miles, Biked 145.8 miles

Week 13: Ran 45 miles, Biked 141 miles

*Week 14: Ran 37 miles, Biked 60 miles

**Week 15: Ran 11 miles, Biked 133 miles, Swam 5,700 meters (3.54 miles)

***Week 16: Ran 13 miles, Biked 216.9 miles, Swam 3,200 meters (1.99 miles)

Week 17: Ran 31 miles, Biked 149.2 miles, Swam 5,700 meters (3.54 miles)


2012 TOTAL MILES: Ran: 470.5 miles, Biked 2,602.44 miles, Swam 14,600 meters (9.07 miles)

2012 GRAND TOTAL MILES: 3,082.01 MILES


*I ran the Charlottesville Marathon this week, and consequently the mileage in the following weeks for running were lower as I was recooperating.

**This week I commennced my swimming training for the year.  I usually go swimming twice a week, on Tuesday and Thursday early in the morning before work.  I go to the Wilson Aquatic Center in D.C. where I get to swim for free because I have a DC ONE card.  It is an amazing indoor aquatics center with an olympic distance pool (on certain days of the week anyways).  I love getting up super early and taking advantage of this wonderful swimming facility I have access to and getting my laps in before work.  I can't think of any better way to start the day.

***Biking mileage was a bit higher this week because I did a century (100 mile bike ride) on Emancipation Day, a holiday that D.C. city government employees get off. 

34 weeks, 3 days

'Nattitude' -- We've got it!

We went to a Nationals game last night and had a lot of fun. We definitely chose the right game to go: we got free tee shirts from an employee who went into the stadium office and found us some extra shirts even though the free promotional shirts were all gone and the game went into extra innings so it was extra exciting. We went down to ground level in the middle of the ninth, thinking the game was almost over but we ended up getting an extra hour and a half of action. The Nats were down for much of the game but made a thrilling come back to win in the 13th inning -- it was epic! I highly recommend watching the video below of the celebration when the Nats won in the 13th; pay special attention to the guy who took his shirt off and is howling at the sky at about 27 seconds.

Marathon in Charlottesville, VA

I ran my second marathon yesterday (my third if you count the marathon at the end of the Chesapeake Man Triathlon I completed) in Charlottesville, Virginia. Charlottesville was a beautiful place to run a marathon. The 26.2 mile course started and ended on the University of Virginia campus and led us through scenic country back roads, a couple trails, parks, highways, and even some residential neighborhoods.

I finished the marathon in 3 hours and 51 minutes. My goal was to finish under 4 hours, so I am very happy with my performance in the race. I finished this race in about 45 minutes less than the last one I ran back in November. I think the biggest difference between the race yesterday and the marathon last November was that I never ‘hit the wall.’ This is when a runner completely runs out of gas and cannot continue running. Yesterday, I was able to power through the entire race, and most importantly the last 7 or 8 miles even though I was definitely feeling the soreness and tightness in my legs.

To prevent myself from ‘hitting the wall’ this time, I had an improved plan for sustenance (basically I had access to Gatorade and Powerbars) throughout the race and I had also intensified my training regimen in the weeks and months leading up to the race. I was running between 30 and 45 miles a week in the final weeks leading up to the race. These things made a huge difference.

The next races on the calendar for me are a Half IronMan in May and my second IronMan in June. This means I need to modify my training from strictly running and biking to including swimming along with continuing to run and bike a lot. I am really looking forward to continuing to work hard, setting new goals, and hopefully reaching all of my goals by continuing to strengthen my mental and physical strength and determination.

Cherry Blossom Kite Festival

Every year during Washington D.C.'s annual Cherry Blossom Festival they have a Kite Festival where tons of people go to the National Mall and fly kites. There are also contests for the best kites in different categories, kite trick contests, etc. Chad and I didn't plan far enough ahead to buy a kite to fly, but we went anyway and watched everyone else fly kites and enjoyed the nice weather. We couldn't believe how high some people got their kites! As you can see in the first picture below, it looks like there are a couple kites close to the top of the Washington National Monument! Maybe next year we'll bring a kite to the festival and teach our little boy to fly it. I can't remember the last time I flew a kite, but I remember how fun it was running down the street and letting the sting out and trying to get the wind to catch it. I also remember many kites getting stuck in the trees. Good thing we always bought cheap ones!

33 Weeks!

Today I am 33 weeks and 1 day! Time has gone really fast! Chad and I are getting really excited to welcome this baby boy to our family. I am feeling pretty good, but also starting to feel really tired!

Cherry Blossoms

One of the most beautiful signs that winter is over and spring has arrived is the blooming of all the Cherry Blossom trees along the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C. The blossoms came much earlier than normal this year because of how warm the winter was. In fact, the blossoms came so much earlier than they usually do that it has been announced that when the actual 'Cherry Blossom Festival' starts there might not even be any blossoms left on the trees. We also heard that last Friday was going to be the last day of 'Peak Bloom,' which meant that there would start to be less of the beautiful pink and white flowers on the trees. We decided to brave the masses of tourists to spend some time walking around the blossom trees and take some pictures.

30 weeks, 4 days

Here's a picture from last night of how big I've gotten. The picture below it is from about 3 weeks ago. I'm feeling pretty good. I think I've actually felt better in the third trimester than I did in the first or second. I'm starting to get more tired though. We are so excited and can't wait to meet our little boy!

30 weeks, 4 days

27 weeks, 3 days

Progress: Weeks 7-11

Below are the miles I have biked/run the past 5 weeks as well as the total mileage for the year so far:

Week 7: Ran 30 miles, biked 163.5 miles.

Week 8: Ran 32 miles, biked 112.8 miles.

Week 9: Ran 34 miles, biked 189 miles.

Week 10: Ran 40 miles, biked 182 miles.

Week 11: Ran 40 miles, biked 152 miles.

2012 miles so far (as of 3/17/12): Ran 306.5 miles, biked 1,756.54 miles.


Note: I did a 20 mile run on Saturday (the 17th). This long run was in preparation of my next marathon that is 3 weeks away. I ran 20 miles in 2 hours and 49 minutes, which is by far my best time and best performance for a 20 mile run. To my pleasant surprise, my legs were not that sore (relatively speaking of course, in comparison to other runs of 20 miles or longer that I have done).

My New (Homemade) Bike Stand

I made my own bike stand a couple weeks ago. I have been wanting a bike stand like this for a while, and now that I am doing quite a bit of my own bike maintenance, I not only wanted one but actually needed one. They are pretty expensive to buy, but not too bad at all if you are willing to go to the hardware store and make it yourself. I looked up a few different ways to make your own, and I went with the set of parts and directions that seemed the most solid and didn't need any serious tools.

The bike stand is mostly just galvanized steel pipes of various lengths with galvanized steel elbows and other connectors. I was able to make it really sturdy, and am confident it will last forever and serve me well in all my biking maintenance endeavors.

My goal is to eventually be able to do all of my own repairs and maintenance. The most recent tool I bought was a spoke wrench. I had also bought a few extra spokes at the bike shop in anticipation of the next time a spoke broke on my bike. I am glad I did, because this seems to happen to me quite a bit -- probably just because I put so many miles on my bike every week. By reading and wathing various informational instructions on the Internet, I was successfully able to change out and put in a new spoke. That meant a saved trip to the bike shop that day and I won't ever have to take my bike in for that ever again.

Progress: Weeks 5-6

I heard an inspiring quote attributed to William Faulkner this week:

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." This week I will be aiming to do something I haven't done before: run 30 miles while still biking into work each day. Wish me luck!

Anyways, here is my progress for weeks 5 and 6 of 2012:

Week 5: Ran 26 miles, biked 171 miles.

Week 6: Ran 28 miles, biked 166 miles.

2012 totals so far (as of 2/11/12): Ran 130.5 miles, biked 957 miles.


*As I mentioned above, this week I will be aiming to run a total of 30 miles. This is a lot, especially for someone who is also biking a minimum of 150 miles a week. To reach this goal I will need to be determined and driven but very cautious and disciplined at the same time. It is easy to injure yourself doing running and biking (both primarily lower body exercises) on the same days, but since I bike into work everyday I don't really have a choice. One of these days I will start hitting up the lap pool again and start racking up the swimming miles as well. For now, I am focusing on running though.

Progress: 2012

Last year I always thought it would have been so cool to know exactly how many miles I had run, swam, and biked but realized I would never be able to know this because I really didn't wouldn't ever start to keep track of my training until the weeks before a race.

However, since we are in a new year I now have the opportunity to keep track of all my training. I have a simple day calendar planner thing that I write everything down in in terms of running, biking, the time it took me to do key running/biking distances, gym workouts, and other important pieces of information.

Here is my progress so far for the year of 2012:


Week 1: Ran 16 miles, biked 113 miles

Week 2: Ran 18.5 miles, biked 146 miles

Week 3: Ran 20 miles, biked 213 miles

Week 4: Ran 22 miles, biked 149 miles


2012 Totals so far (as of 1/28): Ran 76.5 miles, Biked 621 miles

23 weeks!

My belly button changed from an "inny" to an "outy" today. I'm definitely getting bigger!

It's a Boy!

Chad and I went to the doctor today for my ultrasound to find out what we're having. It's a boy! We are thrilled! The ultrasound technician took pictures and measurements for over an hour. It was fun to see our little boy's arms, legs, feet, toes, hands, heart beating, ears, nose, face, etc. The ultrasound technician took and printed lots of pictures for us. She even did some 4-D ultrasound for no extra charge and we were able to see what our little boy's face looks likes. He was moving constantly during the ultrasound. She could barely get the measurements and pictures she needed. He is going to be an active little boy! Here are some pictures:

Screen Printing

Yesterday my good friend Tana taught me how to add designs to clothing by screen printing (Thanks Tana!). We created the design we wanted on her computer with her silhouette program, had the silhouette cut out the design on wax paper, and then ironed the wax paper onto the onesie. Then I used the wax paper as a stencil and painted inside it to produce the Ironbaby onesie you see below:

When Chad heard I was going to learn screen printing from Tana, it was actually his idea that I make this onesie. He wants our baby to wear it at his next Ironman triathlon race on June 24th in Idaho. It was really easy and fun to make and I look forward to doing lots more screen printing projects. I already have some ideas.

Colonials Basketball VIP Seats

Last week my principal sent out an email that she had 8 VIP tickets to go see the George Washington Colonials conference home opener basketball game and she would give them to the first people that responded to the email. I emailed her back as soon as I read the email that I would love a pair of tickets if there were still any left. I was lucky enough to get two tickets!

It was DCPS night so during one of the timeouts the anouncer recognized all the DCPS teachers in attendance and specifically all the teachers and staff from my school in the VIP section that had just switched buildings over the winter break (back to our newly renovated building that burned down last year). I hadn't been expecting this at all, but it made sense that my principal got the VIP tickets because of the transition our school had just gone through.

We had a great time doing something new out here in D.C.; these are some of the pictures that show just how sweet our seats were:


This is a picture and video from when they were recognizing the DCPS teachers. The video starts out a little hard to follow just what exactly is happening but about halfway through you can see pretty well that they are showing me on the big screen:

"17 Degrees Fahrenheit, Feels Like 6"

Take a close look at this picture. I took it in the morning one day last week to remember how cold it was here before I biked in to work. It was on January 4th to be more specific, just a couple days after we had been in Orange County with weather in the 70's and 80's nearly the entire time.

I happen to know for a fact that this was the coldest weather that I have ever ridden my bike to work in because of something unique that happened during the morning commute that had never happened before or since: the water inside my Camelbak water tube froze solid. In case you're not aware of what a Camelbak is, it is basically a big water pouch you carry around in your backpack that has a long straw-like tube coming out of it that you can conveniently drink from while you are biking or doing any type of physical activity (see picture below from a similar but not nearly as cold morning ride). At first I didn't realize what had happened, but it didn't take long to figure out. I should have realized what was happening sooner when the water started getting REALLY cold and difficult to drink out of the tube. Once it was frozen, I tried to warm it up and break up the ice while I was biking but there was no way that was going to happen (6 degrees with the wind chill....forget about it!). I have ridden in very cold weather before, even in the teens and possibly single digits, but the water in my Camelbak had never frozen solid before.

This was a cycling 'first' that I don't particularly want to do again any time soon.

Christmas in California

Michelle and I had the good fortune to spend the Christmas holiday season with friends and family in beautiful Orange County, California. This was the first time I had been back to where I grew up since right before Michelle and I got engaged about four and half years ago. One thing that hadn't changed a bit was the year-round amazing weather. This was something we enjoyed from the moment we got off the plane til the moment we got back on one when it was time to go home. As nice as the weather was, the best part was of course getting to spend a week and a half with my parents, my brother, and some of my uncles and cousins that I hadn't seen in a long time.

We did so many fun things, here are just a few of the highlites:

Christmas Morning!

One of Michelle's favorite presents was a simple one: this key chain from my mom that said 'Mom' on it:

Long Beach: we ate dinner at a Mexican food restaurant named Pancho's that I remember from when I was a little kid (and by the way it hasn't changed a bit); also my cousin showed us around some of the coolest decorated neighborhoods (Canal Street to be specific) that we had ever seen.

Fabulous Hollywood: my uncle drove us around Hollywood and we got to see all the iconic sights. We even drove up pretty close to the famous 'Hollywood' sign even though the locals hate it when tourists do it.

In & Out!!!

My dog Grommie (named after the show Wallace and Grommit of course) who we have had since she was just a puppy that could sit in the palm of my hand. She has slowed down a lot since then; she is something like 84 in doggy years.

Going on long runs in the California Desert: