Hug Point

Hugging at Hug Point State Park, OR on our mini-moon trip down the oregon coast.


Playing a hopscotch of sorts with myself making foot prints playing in the sand.

It's been a really intense, brain draining week at work. i've certainly learned tons, most of it feeling like research and not directly applying to solving the problem at hand at the time ... until 2 days later and i'm like "oh, i know how that works, i can do that!" but it's left me kind of worn out.

fall also happened practically over night in the last week. i feel like i missed too much of summer to wedding planning this year. and it's already fall!! i secretly love this time of year though. it's time to start lifting some weights and heading to the gym. i love lifting, it makes me feel strong and buff. it's also shorts and fleece weather now. yay! at least the sun is still shining. as the days get shorter my commute seems to feel longer. it it possible the SR-16 stretches in the winter months??

Fluffy Tia

Jen snapped this just before the ceremony.
It totally cracks me up.
Tia in a big sea of princess-like-fluffy-white-girly-ness displaying a nice collection of scars and scrapes down her arm earned from a variety of different bicycle related crashes over the years.
yup, you can put the tomboy in a dress with face paint, but you can't take the tomboy out of the tomboy. :)

what you don't exactly see in this picture is me completely slumped in a wooden kitchen chair in the bathroom w/ my feet propped up at head level on the sink. It was just after this when i said something like "I think i have to pee again, do you think it's just pre-race jitters? or do i really need to go again?!" b/c trying to go pee while wearing a sea of princess-like-fluffy-white-girly-ness is truly a team effort. (Thanks Team Bridetribe!)

Operation: Team Lean

Team Tia and Andy have set out to become Team Lean.

Our goal: lose 100 pounds by next summer. That breaks down to about 70 pounds for Andy and 30 for Tia.

Why? Because we are too fat to race in our current state. We feel pudgy and unhealthy. We are tired of whining about our clothes feeling tight, and Tia refuses to buy new "fat clothes". We both like to go fast on our bikes, and we feel like slugs on them right now.
Doesn't that sound like a lot? Yes, but we've both done it before, no reason we can't do it again (and make it stick this time). Andy topped out after college at 425 pounds. Tia at 215. (Can you believe that?!) Being fat sucks, and we're not going there again!
How did this happen? Wedding planning is stressful. We both try to eat (and drink) our stress away. and we've been too busy to ride our bikes much the last couple of months. That all compounds to FAT!

How will we accomplish our goal? lots of hard work and determination is the short answer.

Next 2 Weeks Goals:
1. Institute bedtime.
1a. The alarm clock in the living room will go off at 10pm indicating that it's time to get showered and start unwinding. We really need to get in regular, good sleep every night.
2. Start eating at consistent times each day.
3. Get in the habit of going to the gym twice a week. Start weight exercises w/out any real weight
3a. Andy is working on getting his gym membership switched to they Y so we can workout together.
4. Dust off the bike, pump up the tires, and starting getting some regular exercise.
4a. Just regular human being exercise at this point will be an improvement. Don't need to have a mindset of "training" or even "working out", just some good exercise is an improvement at this point.
5. Increase veggie consumption.
5a. The more veggies we eat, the less junk we tend to eat.

Fred and George

 

I snagged these guys out of a huge pirate chest full of kiddie toys at a restaurant in Newport. After sticking them to the windows of the car and making them dance around on my fingers while I made up songs about octopus-y-pies and jelly-fishy-doos, they finally came to rest on the dash for the remainder of the trip. I declared they needed names, and Andy creatively came up with Fred and George (left to right).

It really is too bad that I'm so difficult to entertain.

We're back!

yay!
wedding weekend was awesome (and exhausting!).
the oregon coast was gorgeous!
and we were so happy to get back to our home last night - our own space - our kitties - our dirty laundry - our jobs ... oh wait.

we found a little tia-tribute on my friend becky's blog last night. i laughed till i cried (multiple times) as andy read it to me. it's 98% fact. except i think the business card said "The man you've been looking for". but i seem to have lost it in the last decade, so we'll have to rely on our memories. :)

will try to post some pictures later this week! but no promises .... i'm ready to spend some more time on my bike and start hitting the gym. and the vortex of tia-time often keeps me from getting everything done. :) hehe.

T-minus hours

ready for weddin'!

it's been a busy busy busy and exhausting few weeks! and wedding is finally almost here! due to flight delays, i picked up my mom at seatac at 2am this morning. and a few family and friends of family have trickled in over the last few days. tomorrow the bulk of our out-of-town guests will descend upon us. :)

how am i feeling? how am i doing? how am i holding up? (i've been getting lots of these questions! thanks for caring!)
short answer:
exhausted, excited, overwhelmed, ready, irritable, tired, jazzed.

longer answer:
- wow, i can't believe this many people love us enough to come so far to be here.
- i'm jealous that our guests are more rested than we are (at least some of them are).
- i flapped my arms at the sky to hold the rain clouds off until monday. (andy and i have been in 2 weddings in the last 6 weeks, and a 30% chance of rain turned into soggy weather and beautiful indoor weddings. we have a solid rain plan, but i really want to be outside).
- ready for a vacation.
- ready to resume my regularly scheduled life.
- ready to ride my bike more.
- ready to be andy's "wife-y".
- tired of visiting craft stores.
- wow, there's so much room in the living room with 2 bikes and computrainers and stands moved out. (it looks sort of naked to us, but both of our mothers were impressed.)

what else have we done besides finish planning a wedding since vacation 3 weeks ago?
- the patio is finished (15' x 30') it's so amazingly cool! we just need some sweet patio furniture now.
- we have a new roof (and shiny new gutters and downspouts).
- i finished painting the house (mostly, there's still a little under-eaves work to do.)
- the remaining poplar trees (that didn't come down in last winter's wind storm) in our backyard have been removed and replaced with a "mountain" of wood chips.
- our house is clean - the cleanest i've ever seen all parts clean at the same time.
- 85% of the flower beds have been deadheaded over the last 2 weeks and it is in gorgeous full summer bloom!
- there is actually a desk and a kitchen table under those piles of paper and junk mail and notes and to-do lists.

yay! we are gunna make it!!

Legendary!

Yesterday's ride surpassed the standards of epic and received the rating of legendary.



5 hours 10 minutes out on the bikes. Dennis rode out to Brandywine falls with Andy and I. Some fire roads, doubletrack and singletrack, awesome views, and some killer climbs. Barbara picked up Dennis and his bike at Brandywine and Andy and i reversed our tracks back to the village. The cloudy skys and the sprinkles off and on through out the day held off .... until our last 10-15 minutes back across the village to the condo ... when the sky just unleashed and it rained cats and dogs ... i just had to throw my head back and laugh at our luck. i'm still not sure if i should call this good luck or bad luck. :)

Mountains hiding in the clouds:

Andy, Dennis and Tia's abandonded bike in route to Brandywine:

Hoo-ray! we made it to the suspension bridge:

Brandywine Falls -- nevermind that we spent nearly 3 hours riding here and we could have parked the car and spent 10 minutes walking from the parking lot .... but where would the fun be in that!?!?