In training

Well, I haven't really "written" much on my blog lately! I've been a bit lazy and just posted a bunch of pictures. So today I'll write a little bit about what's going on with us.

The main thing on my mind in recent weeks is running, biking, and swimming! That's right, I'm going to attempt my first triathlon at the end of May! I've always wanted to do one, but I've had 2 main excuses: I'm a terrible swimmer and I don't own a bike! Well the bike issue was taken care of a few weeks ago when they went on sale at Target. Yes, I know... a clearance bike at Target is not really built to handle the rigors of competitive racing! But if that was the only way that Eric and I were going to be able to afford bikes, then it had to be done. Fortunately the bike trailers were on sale too, so we picked up one of those for Chase! So for a grand total of $210 we got 2 bikes and a trailer!! Can't beat that. Now we can ride to the pool, the grocery store, the playground, and our friends' houses without having to get in the car! It's great! A little squeaky, but great. So that finished off one excuse. Now I just need to get in the pool more often and swim to build up my endurance. I was actually swimming a lot about 2 years ago (which you can read about here... wow, can't believe I've been blogging for that long!), but I haven't gone much since Chase was born, for obvious reasons. You can't just up and go to the pool and swim laps anytime you want... you have to have someone to watch the kid! Running and biking are much easier since I can take him with me. Anyways, the triathlon I'm doing is actually a "mini", which means I don't have to worry about swimming too far. The only downside is that the run is really short and that's the part I like best! I have 2 friends here who are doing it too (actually they're the ones who talked me into it), so it'll be nice to have other people there that I know. And if Eric isn't working he might enter it as well! We also have two other 5K road races coming up this month, starting this weekend, so we are constantly out doing something to get ready for all of these races. Fitting in enough sleep and food in... now that's the tough part!

Chase is into everything these days... and I mean EVERYTHING! He rearranges the house constantly and makes me have a near heart attack every other minute. If he's not eating toothpaste, he's climbing on top of the kitchen table. And if he's not on the table, he's opening the pantry (which he just grew tall enough to do) and taking out my box of granola and pouring it all over the living room floor! He squeezes my sunscreen out everywhere, climbs on top of the computer, punches the keyboard and deletes files, feeds the dogs tortilla chips from the pantry, takes the shoes from my closet to the playroom and his toys from the playroom to the bathroom, etc., etc., etc! Sometimes I feel like I do enough running around the house and I really don't need to go out for "training" runs at all! It's fun though. He's at a fun age where he's just learning and exploring constantly, figuring out how his world works. He's still not talking much but he says "mama", "uh-oh", and a whole bunch of indistinguishable words constantly. He's really into imitating words that we say. He always says "sh sh" when we say "shoes", or "ca" when we say "cup." I know it won't be long before he starts saying these things on his own. My favorite thing that he does right now is when he wants us to chase him or he wants to follow us. If he has something he knows he shouldn't have (like my lip gloss earlier), he'll look at me, giggle and take off running! But if I want him to follow me somewhere I can say "march, march!" or "run, run, run" and he'll laugh and follow. So far it seems like his name is a perfect fit!