Monday, April 26, 2010

Diary of a TRI-wife: Entry #1 LoneStar Triathlon

Then this past weekend, we had a very exciting weekend. Forrest did his FIRST triathlon at Moody Gardens in Galveston and did an OUTSTANDING job! The swim portion got cancelled do to weather conditions (the weather had been out of control all night, the night before and the wind was terrible!) For the bike he did 13.1 miles in 39:59 minutes and ran 3.1 miles in 22:58 minutes. He met all of his goals and we were all so proud of him. This was Aaron’s first triathlon as well and he did a great job too, I think even better then he thought he would do. We stayed at their beach house and just made a fun weekend out of it. O, and I finally got to hold Abigail. She was the most precious and easy baby, just slept the whole time.

More posts to come regarding triathlon details, events, and training. Forrest plans to do another sprint in the fall before the half Ironman and who knows what else he commits to at this point!

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Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Keeping Busy

This semester, especially March through May- has been one with many eventful weekends. It seems like we have something going on every weekend. I am DEF not complaining- I like to stay busy, but it is getting harder and harder to focus on school. And this is not a good time to slack since the semester is almost over! I cannot wait!! I am REALLY looking forward to my two week break which will consist of going to California for 5 days (and Disneyland with Reagan, yay!) and then coming back to spend a little vacation time with Forrest. We will be doing some camping (wish me luck), river floating, and all the outdoorsy type things that go along with. I am so excited!

Last weekend, I went to Elisha’s luncheon at Christopher’s which was very nice. While I was doing that, Forrest rode 57.5 MILES on his bike!!! Whoop! It took him about 3.5 hrs, isn’t that just crazy? I was quite impressed! I took a few pictures of him before going to the luncheon because I wanted to make a poster for his first triathlon coming up. Cycling 001

E's Luncheon & Crawfish Boil 001 group Later that evening we went to the Walter’s Crawifsh Boil which was fun. We got to see our friends Stacie and Kevin and their adorable kids who we haven’t seen in awhile.

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Monday, April 12, 2010

Fun Run & Fiesta!

Friday night, Forrest and I had a low key evening. We watched The Blind Side for the first time; I loved it or course and cried periodically throughout the whole thing even at the smallest things. This movie really fits in well with my expectations and idea of a “GOOD” movie. After the movie, we headed to bed a little early to get plenty of rest for our run the next morning.

Saturday we ran in the SRPH Fun Run 5K (School of Rural Public Health). Forrest did AMAZING. His goal was to keep a pace under 8 minutes and he did above and beyond this, with a finishing time of 23:07.  AND, on top of that, he finished FIRST in his age group! So proud of him!! As for me, my goal was to beat my last time and do it under 30min. My time was 29:54 which beats my last time by about 17 seconds! We celebrated by getting brunch at Ozona’s, then headed off to Lowes to get some flowers to plant in the front yard.

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J&E Couple Shower 018 Then  Saturday night, Forrest and I attended Jarrad and Elisha’s Mexican themed couple shower. The host’s home and the weather were both absolutely beautiful and made for such a nice evening outside. The party didn’t stop after the shower either! We joined the group by going out to the Corner afterwards for a couple of drinks. So much fun! And such fun people! It was overall a great night and we are super happy for the soon-to-be married, Elisha and Jarrad! J&E Couple Shower 004J&E Couple Shower 007  J&E Couple Shower 012 J&E Couple Shower 013girl pic

Lastly, we enjoyed our Sunday out at the ranch with Forrest’s parents. Forrest and his dad had so planning to do for the barn they are about to have built.

So thankful to have such fun places to go and great people to share them with!

Ranch Bluebonnets

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Saturday, April 3, 2010

What will be in your biography?

Thursday, I had geriatrics clinical at an Alzheimer’s special care facility. We have been preparing for how to care for patients with Alzheimer's in class and I thought it would be really challenging, emotionally, for me to experience it in real life. I just thought how tragic it must be to grow old and slowly lose your memory. I would think it is the memories that probably make you the happiest when you get to the later stages of your life.

Once arriving to the facility (us students), the first thing they asked us to do was to help with feeding some of the clients. So we go in the kitchen and everyone is gathered at the tables waiting on breakfast to come out. Many are in wheelchairs, all have on bibs, and some are even falling asleep. I sit at a “feeding table” and prepare myself thinking I know feeding someone sounds easy, but what if I can’t do it right? I mean these particular patients do not communicate much, if at all and on top of that she doesn’t even know me.

Then something just kicked in when I sat down next to her. This often happens to me in clinicals at the hospital when I am assigned to a patient (s)- I cannot describe the feeling I get. It is like I become very protective and in control (two things I am not really in everyday life). I know every patient has different needs and that at this moment, my patient needed two things: physically- she needed nutrients and emotionally- she needed comfort. So I just held her hand assuring her that I was there to care for her for awhile. Then as I fed her, I smiled and she smiled back at me almost the entire time. She couldn’t speak to me and I never really knew if she could understand what I was saying to her but I still felt that in a way we communicated something very special, at least it was to me.

The rest of the day, we helped with activities and just talked to the patients the best that we could. At one point we didn’t have much going on so I started walking around the facility. I had noticed earlier that in front of everyone’s room was a picture (old or new) of them and a biography. I wanted to find my patient from earlier to read her story and as I was looking, I just began reading everyone’s.

Every single one of these patient’s led the most intriguing lives and here they are unable to talk about it- but we have the opportunity to read about it. They were all VERY educated (many had masters and doctorate degrees) and even most of the women had college degrees, which surprised me for that generation. Many of them talked about their children and grandchildren and of course spouses of countless years (most were deceased).  Several talked about the trips they had taken to Europe and various countries within. Almost all of them were very active in their church and communities they lived in. Several of the women were homemakers and enjoyed sewing, baking, and things of that nature. One of the doctors I read about was a radiologist who traveled all over the world for the World’s Fair. I didn’t even know really what that was until I looked it up later. One of the women was a Registered Nurse for over 35 years including the time she served in the Army.

I also loved looking at the pictures. To see the youth and be able to subtract all of the wrinkles and gray hair. And just recognizing one by one who each one was- although there were many changes, I could still tell who was who.

I know this blog is getting really long but I could talk all day about these biographies. I was so impressed, I read almost every single biography in that facility.

And it made me wonder, what will mine sound like? I know so far I have been happy and felt successful in my life. But compared to these people, I don’t have anything on them. I felt humbled- I might never have a biography like some of these people. But I do know one thing, I will keep everything I read in mind for the next patient I come across, for everybody has a story.

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