What . . . a whirlwind

Getting a bit behind so I figured I'd better post something today before I rationalize my way out of it again. So first things first

My birthday! Katie, Jon, Staci, and LeeAnn came over that night and we had dinner and cake! Staci made the cake (spice cake with toasted coconut frosting. YUM!) of course and it was fabulous as usual. My p's were on their way out of town with my brother Ken and his kids. Ken's mother-in-law passed away unexpectedly and they were all heading up for the funeral in Twin Falls. But they stopped by on their way and dropped off an enormous Costco sheet cake (carrot cake with apricot cream frosting in the middle. YUM again!) to make up for their absence. And my sister also stopped by with her kids and THEY brought ice cream cake (chocolatey caramel goodness. YUM cubed!). Lots of cake that day! No wonder I've gained 5 pounds!

BAM! Short for the Battle At Midway triathlon. My first race of the season and I was underprepared and unfocused! Awesome! But luckily I'd paid in advance and was committed to doing it. And I'm so glad I did because it was awesome! I freaking loved it! Even the swim portion which is normally my most hated event. Although my swim time was slower than last year— amazing since last year I treaded water for several minutes at the start trying to decide if I REALLY wanted to swim in 52 degree water in 42 degree weather—I managed to knock off 3 minutes from time. Made me really wish I'd trained harder for this since I missed my time goal by 31 seconds. Ouch. But the experience was awesome and made me excited to do some more. It was fun to have Dave there and doing it with me.

West Yellowstone! This past weekend Staci and I headed up to West Yellowstone for a much needed mini-vacation. We were lucky that the weather stayed pretty decent for our trip. It was very pleasant on Saturday and when it rained it didn't rain long. Until night time when it got cold and rainy and stayed that way into Sunday. Naturally the weather cleared up behind us as we drove home.

Our hotel room was sketchy at best. Had obvious structural problems and the pool and hot tub were less than inviting. "Closed for the season" we were told. Would that season be summer? Hmmm. Found out it was rated as the next to worst hotel in West Yellowstone. We switched rooms since our first room hadn't been cleaned since it was built in the 1980's and the second one wasn't nearly as bad. A pack of clorox wipes later and we felt right at home. With our shoes on at all times of course.

Staci giving one of her new friends a kiss

Taking pictures of poop for later identification. Stace was convinced we were going to be attacked by a bear, bison, or other large animal while we hiked and wanted to find out which animals were sharing our trail.

That brown smudge is actually a bear! Not sure which kind but it was really close to the road and created a VERY long traffic jam while everyone stopped to get pictures

We passed right by this massive elk on our first hike. It was laying down in the brush 15 yards from the trail!

We were very curious how hot the water was coming from the different hot springs so we took turns seeing how hot everything was. I know. We were so very daring! We even left the path in a couple sections even though signs warned us not to do it. Ha!!

Pierced

It’s official. I now have pierced ears. I know, I know. You just felt the earth move beneath your feet. Or maybe you saw chunks of sky fall and land dangerously close to your newly painted toenails. Or whatever. To answer the question I can sense on the tips of your respective tongues: no, I have never pierced them before. My ears, that is — in case you were unsure to which body parts I was referring. And neither had my 67 year old mother, whose idea it was to get her own ears pierced and drag me along for the fun. Her birthday was last Saturday and mine is today so she thought it would be a fabulous birthday bonding moment if we both ventured to Claire’s and did the deed together. It has been a lot of fun, actually. Unless I accidentally bump the studs and have sharp stabbing pains coursing through my body. It is freakish how tender your  ears can be. And although I never thought I would enjoy earrings, I really like my new accessories. And so does my mom. Just shows it’s never too late to try new things. 

But that was just the beginning of my week! It’s been interesting. Let me give some background: before last Sunday I was having a serious case of The Sads and really wondering if I’d made the right decision to end my relationship with Bret. Even though I broke up with him 6 months ago, he has continued to text me and our text conversations generally end with him telling me how much he misses me — which never allowis total closure to our relationship. He had started texting me regularly again at the beginning of May and like I said, I was starting to really miss having someone in my life. I’d been on some really bad dates which made me remember more of the good things about my relationship with Bret and allowed me to minimize the things that convinced me we weren’t right for each other. I hit a low point last week and ended up laying in my hallway having a big ugly sob fest for no apparent reason (I’m blaming it on hormones). 

My mood stayed low and I was struggling to get myself back together emotionally. I think I finally figured out why it was so difficult! So after my emotional break, I wanted to talk it out and try to regain control of my situation. So I called up my peeps to chat it out and told them all about my sob fest and how unstable I’d been feeling BUT I didn’t mention what happened AFTERWARDS! While on the floor as Sasha sniffed worriedly at my head, I started praying. And praying and praying. For peace, for understanding, for reassurance that I wasn’t a crazy person. And it came! The peace came and the suffocating fear left. I knew everything would be okay and that although I had no idea what the crap was happening in my life, the Lord did and it was under control. Why I didn’t share this crucial bit of information with my friends . . .  I don’t know. All I dwelt on was the negative feelings to led to me losing hope and that left the window open for those feelings to linger. 

So this past Sunday during church is when I had this epiphany and the peace and clarity returned. Not a moment too soon since Bret texted me that night wanting to go biking Saturday (yesterday). I was apprehensive about the whole thing and really didn’t want to see him. With my renewed perspective came a reminder of all the reasons why we weren’t a good

 match and I had no desire to see him. But then I became curious to see what it would be like. So I went and we biked up Mueller Canyon (seriously LAME ride! That trail is so freaking crowded on the weekends that it wasn’t much fun. I almost hit 3 people coming down the trail...) It ended up being a good thing for me, I think. Being 

with him reminded me of some things that really 

REALLY bugged when we were together. And I didn’t have to care! I could tease him mercilessly and not be worried about hurting his feelings. But we can never truly be friends! He thinks we can be but I’d never feel comfortable talking about truly personal things with him. And even though I don’t want to be with him I don’t want to hear about who he’s dating! But I survived it all! And I’m still a faster biker than he is which makes me happy.

All in all a great week. I managed to pass my advanced CV presentation — which I had to whip out in less than 12 hours since I’d written the date down wrong and had to give it a day earlier than I had planned. And I got in some really good mountain bike rides, hung with my girl Bea, and my other girls Meredith and Dave. (Just kidding Davey!) 

Life is good!