Dreams

Everyone has said it, but man, pregnancy dreams are crazy. Last night I was a high school Spanish teacher. The previous night a bomb was dropped and everyone was killed. And one night over the weekend, Justin and I were partying with Justin Bieber.

I think the slumber fairies are also starting to attack Justin too. He recently had a dream that I gave birth—like a champ, mind you—to a 14 pound, 2'4" baby. I sure hope he's right about the delivery being no sweat but I'm not liking those size stats.

Lake in the Hills Sprint Triathlon

On Sunday, June 16, Justin and I competed in our fifth sprint triathlon and our second time racing in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. Sprint tri distances can vary but a typical sprint distance has a .25-.5 mile swim, 12-16ish mile bike, and 3-4 mile run. The Lake in the Hills race was a .5 mile swim, 15.5 mile bike, and 4 mile run.

Our pre-race excited faces

Our post-race exhausted faces

Like the Moose Miles 5K, this race holds a special place in our hearts because it was the first triathlon competition of which we raced, in June 2011. Back then, we swam in wake-boarding spring suits (thick wetsuits that extend to your elbows and knees) and used our Schwinn hybrid bikes. In the two years since and using our upgraded equipment, Justin trimmed off a little more than 22 minutes, finishing in 1:36:25 and I clocked 1:45:38, also a little more than 22 minutes better than the first time.

My suited-up baby bump

First Trimester

We found out I was pregnant March 24, just 4 weeks into the first trimester. And now that the first trimester is over, I am fortunate to report that I didn't experience morning sickness (unless you count two minor bouts of nausea). However, I wasn't able to bypass feeling exhausted all. the. time. As my luck would have it, my entire first trimester was during Spring semester, in which I was teaching 12 credits on top of my full-time job, so needless to say it was tough. I took many naps in my car at lunch and squeezed in a couple before class some nights.

Expecting November 29

Justin and I are pleased to share the news that we are expecting a baby, due November 29, 2013, and we are over the moon — even though this photo doesn't accurately portray those emotions.

Smart Gardener

A couple weekends ago, Justin and I converted my grass-level garden bed into a 8" raised bed. I'm really happy with our solution and love the new look.

Before

After

Last summer I was consumed with training for my 1/2 Ironman race, so I didn't plant a garden and even this year I drug my feet, but I finally got it in June 2. As with most of the United States, we had odd weather during May so when Mother's Day came and went (my typical planting weekend), I didn't fret much and determined it was ok to wait a couple more weeks.

Lettuce

Spinach

Zucchini

Green Onions

Roma Tomatoes

This year, I also wanted to be a bit more experimental with the veggie variety, and for free advice, I created an account at SmartGardener.com. This site helped me choose veggies and plan for correct spacing and layout considerations, which was an immense help since I didn't know where to start.

And now that I have the plants in the ground, and they're coming up green, it continues to advise through weekly emails and an online to-do list that reminds me what I should be doing.

If you're a gardening amateur or newbie, check it out!

Great Western Half Marathon

The past weekend, Justin and I (and a couple of our run-club buddies) ran in the Great Western Half Marathon. (That's 13.1 miles.)

Thanks for the pic Jilly!

This was definitely not our first half marathon, we ran several 13.1+ distances when training for the Chicago Marathon last year, but it was the first organized half marathon race we repeated. Last year when we participated, it was our first time running that distance and we did well for amateurs. I finished in 1:56:28 and Justin scored a 2:14:52. I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that not only had Justin been in the hospital for pancreatitis symptoms a few weeks earlier, he had also injured his plantar fascia playing in a league volleyball game a little over a week before the race and decided that race day would be a good day to wear new shoes... thus, his slower-than-he-could-have-ran-it-had-he-been-100%-and-in-worn-in-shoes finishing time. Anywho, this year, I improved, setting a personal record (PR) and Justin did far better, also PRing with a shared finishing time of 1:53:49. (Yes, we stayed together the whole time. Aren't we cute?)

Awesome photo of us finishing by our friend Chelsey.

Some trainers and other runners aren't going to like to hear this, and I don't condone our behavior even though it worked for us, but we didn't particularly train this year like we did last. After running the full marathon, we didn't let our weekend long-runs get any shorter than 8-10 miles on average, we maintained running 5-milers twice during the work-week, and we did do a 13.1 test a couple weeks before the race. So, we were fortunate that pulling this out, wasn't really a challenge this year.

If you have been toying with upping your distance, I would highly recommend a half marathon. It is challenging, but it's also an achievable distance in which you can push yourself within reason. I enjoyed running the Chicago Marathon last year, but I'm going to be sticking to halfs for a while.

Moose Miles 5K

We continued our annual tradition of running the Ottawa Moose Miles 5K Saturday. The past couple years, it has been a family affair, with Justin's immediate family members also participating but this year only Justin's dad, Jack, joined in on the fun.

The two of us were quite victorious, snagging first place medals for our respective age groups.

This was the fifth annual event and we have ran this race since its inauguration so it holds a special place in our hearts. In fact, it was the first 5K we ran. Call me obsessive or crazy, but I've been tracking our race times since the beginning and it's interesting to see how we have progressed. Hopefully we stay on this track!


2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Justin 0:24:03 0:24:08 0:24:03 0:22:29 0:21:46
Jessi 0:27:22 0:26:30 0:25:58 0:24:30 0:23:43

China 2012 Photobook

I received our photobook of our China trip in the mail this week and love looking through it, remembering all the wonderful experiences we had.

Click here to view this photo book larger

New Wheels

Daisy, our 2002 VW Jetta, bit the dust Friday, March 29. This photo was taken just a few minutes before I sold her to the highest bidder, who wanted her even though she needed a new engine.

Fortunately, we were already scouting for a new car, but this really truncated our car-buying schedule. For the week it took to sort out the details with selling Daisy, we borrowed Debbie's old Ford Windstar van which I'm guessing is a '98. It served us well for the week, but I was antsy to get our own vehicle that had power windows and locks.

As soon as our calendar freed up a bit, we went to the Mazda dealer and took our prospect, the CX-5, out for an extended test drive Saturday morning. In actuality, we drove it to our meeting with our financial planner and stopped for lunch, before heading back to do the deal. After a couple hours at the dealership — why on this green earth does it take several hours to buy a car?!? — we were zoom-zooming out of the parking lot in our brand new 2014 black on black Mazda CX-5.

So far, my favorite feature is the keyless entry, and I'm not talking about a remote clicker that you accidentally hit the panic/alarm button all the time. It's like this, when I have the sensor on my person, I can push this small button on the door handle to unlock and lock it. One of the best things ever! Some other things I really like are the miles per gallon, bluetooth streaming music and calls from my phone, Bose speakers, and the seat heaters (a necessity for for leather!).