Skype

Skype has been around for a while now, but I had not thought about using it in a long time. We used it often when Ellen went to Australia. Recently I have picked back up using it again and it is awesome. It works great since my laptop has a built in webcam and microphone. Ellen and I Skyped a few weeks ago and played a game from our childhood...pitch/keep. She helped me get rid of jewelry I don't wear anymore, like or need.

I also spent some time with Charlie.

Bailey came to the party for a while also. And I got to see my mom, she didn't want a picture taken of her though. hehe

Last week some of my girlfriends and I went to "happy hour" together. We all sat at our own computers and had some beers together while Skyping. You can't video chat with more than one person, so we just did the voice dial. But every now and then one of us would sign out to go do something and the other people could video chat. It was awesome getting to see each others faces and even when we didn't have the video going it was so much fun just getting to all talk and hang out at the same time. Look at how happy some of us were....
Krista waving "Hi" from Boston.
Sarah and Leslie laughing at pictures they were taking of me from St Louis.

I can't wait to Skype again with my sister and friends. I also just found out that my littlest sister in law, Jessica, got a web cam and a Skype account and I am looking forward to Skyping with her. Now we just need Kim to get one so we can chat with her too and so Steve and I can see Leah growing up "in person".

Yuri is 1 year old!

Yuri turned 1 yesterday! For his birthday he got a puppy pie. :)

He waited patiently for his treat while I made Steve snap a photo of him in front of it.
He had to share it with his brother of course. They were both super excited.

Dog Park

Last weekend we took the dogs to Shawnee Mission Park. They have a nice off leash dog park area. Chewie has visited most of the dog parks in the area, but Yuri had yet to go to any of them. This was his first time and he loved it! I think Chewie loved it a little more being there with his brother too. He was more adventurous than previous times we had taken him.

There is a place where dogs can get into the lake and swim around. This is as much as they wanted to get in. hehe.

They really stuck together the whole time. Chewie was the leader and Yuri would go where ever he was, occasionally running back to us to see that we were still there and let us know they were alright. Hopefully the heat backs off soon and we can take them to adventure at the dog parks around more often.

CSA

One of our local grocery stores, Hen House, has a CSA program. CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture. It is a program where you can get locally produced foods and for a good price. You should really look into if there is a CSA in your area! Everything that you get is so fresh and tastes like it too. It is awesome for Steve and I cause it is a pre-made grocery list each week, halfway through the week, and we are getting things that we would never have picked up on our own. Which is getting us to cook new things.

How it works is first we signed up and choose a pick-up day. For us this is Wednesday. We never know what we are doing on Saturdays(the other choice) to know if we would be around during the pick-up time. This also gives us a chance to not buy weekend groceries that we don't use or go bad. Our weekend shopping is now for just 2-3 meals, since we can pick-up anything else on Wednesday when we are at the grocery store to pick up our CSA. Each week they send you list of items you will get that week. Sometimes things change though based on the crops and weather effects on them. Each item is given a points value based on its price. You can exchange anything you want for things of similar points values. They also have a table set up with things you can exchange for not on the list that week. There is usually a meat item each week, a dairy item and then veggies. Ranging from 5 to 6 items each time too. If you can't pick-up a week you just tell them. Also, it is just $25, no matter what the actual cost of the items totals. Lately its always around $30 worth of stuff. Here are just a few of the awesome things we have gotten and some of the things we have made with them!

A whole chicken! I had no idea how to cook a whole chicken. Luckily Steve just got a new cookbook with a recipe for cooking a whole chicken. We also invested in a dutch oven for this. Got a great deal on it. This is one of those things I am not sure we would have ever bought, a raw whole chicken.

Fresh baked bread. It was delicious!

A melon(who knows what type this one was, we are getting to know all different types of melons. Did you know there was more than watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe?) Also heirloom tomatoes. I made a "bruschetta" with them. Used the above bread and some whole milk white cheddar cheese we received one week.

Baked some red potatoes with fresh dill...again all from the CSA.

This is not even a sliver of all the things we have gotten and made since signing up a month ago. It is such a great program, I really recommend looking into if you have one around you. And remember it is all local!

Beds

We finally put on all of the new bedding we got from the wedding the other week. We decided to wait a while before putting it on because we had gotten a new puppy, Yuri. We knew from having Chewie that there are no guarantees with a puppy, that even once you think they are potty trained that they still might not let you know in the middle of the night that they need to go. So we wanted to wait to put on our new, very nice, very expensive bedding.

It looks so great in the room and it is very comfortable. The pups love it too. They do not love the new rules though of not being allowed on the bed if they are dirty. They have also gotten a new bed. A bigger cage to share. I love the pokadot bed I found at Petsmart to go in it. The pups must too, I caught Yuri coming out of the cage this morning. He had gone in there on is own. :)

My First Triathlon!

My first triathlon is complete! It was awesome. While my legs don't feel the same way today as my mind I can't wait for 3 weeks from today to do it all over again. :) I think getting to do the WIN for KC as my first tri was part of what made it so exciting. 850 women, all there to do one thing, be a triathlete. There were women from the age of 12 to mid/late 60's, all shapes and sizes there. It is a very empowering environment. The whole race everyone is just encouraging each other and letting you know how awesome you are doing. Of the 850 women over half of them were like me, first timers. Which is very comforting to know you aren't the only one who has no idea what is about to happen to you.

The swim start. One women started every 5 seconds. You lined up by what you thought your total swim time would be, starting with 5 minutes! You should see what it looks like for someone to swim 500 meters in 5 minutes, it is crazy. The 5 minute group started at 7:30, I entered the water sometime around 8:15. My goal for swimming was to do it under 20 mins, which was giving myself a lot of room to accomplish this goal, since I figured I could actually swim 500 meters in open water in 15 mins. Well I not only kicked 20 mins in the ass, I kicked 15 mins in the ass too. :) My official swim time was 13:36. Then you have to run(uphill) to the transition area, change into your bike gear(for me was put on socks, shoes, sunglasses and helmet) then run your bike(again uphill) to the bike start.

After swimming the beginning of my bike was kinda rough. After about 2 miles I caught my breath and picked it up. My goal was to bike the 10 miles in under an hour. My official bike time was 50:43. At the end of the bike you dismount and jog back to your rack to mount your bike and get your running gear. I had a mishap that cost me a little time in transition 2 and that was no one left me room for my bike! I was trying to get my bike in and knocked over someones bike. A volunteer ran over and helped me out, but I have no doubt that it cost me quite a few seconds. I got my hat and race belt and took off...well I tried to. Running or even walking after biking 10 miles is close to impossible.

First you feel like maybe you can't walk, but they you feel ok. So you take off running and then your calves feel like they weight a ton and they are in balls. I slowed down a bit and powered through it. After a few minuets they stretch out and you are good to go, other than just being tired. My run goal was a little crazy. I wanted to run the 5k portion in under 40 mins. Which is crazy because I can barely run a 5k on a normal day in under 40 mins and yesterday I was swimming and biking before it. I missed my goal by 50 seconds! I am counting it complete though. :) My run time was 40:50.

My number one goal was to just finish the whole thing, which I did!

Katie and I with our finishing medals. Katie is super awesome. She has done a ton of tris before and is overall just a really fit person. I got the idea of training for a tri from her, found out about the tri 101 class from her and have used her as a source for everything tri. She's been an awesome mentor. Its been great having someone to talk to about all the things that I was so nervous about and someone to train with. Plus it is always great to get to hang out with friends.

I also couldn't have done the tri without Steve. He has been very supportive of my training and in the days leading up to the WIN some times it seemed like he was more excited than I was. He got up yesterday at 4am to go with me to the tri so he could be there to watch me accomplish becoming a triathlete and cheer me along the whole way. It was really great to have him there.

We went out celebrating last night with Brandi and Drake. We took in some roller derby then headed to the Flying Saucer for beers...big beers. :) Overall it was a great day.