Spoke N' Hot Babes

Before the race - Abby, me, Carin, Kim, Holly, Melinda

It all started when Abby and Holly invited me to go on this 50 mile bike ride. The idea felt overwhelming and to be honest, kind of unattainable. The deadline to sign up was coming and a decision had to be made. Who was in?? We all emailed back and forth and I was on the fence. I had never ridden a road bike, especially for that distance, and I didn't even own a road bike. It seemed like a lose lose situation. I waffled back and forth until I was forced to make the decision. I replied to all, said yes, and hit send. It was a lottery and part of me really hoped our team wouldn't get accepted. But the other part of me didn't want to miss out on a fun girl's weekend if we were accepted. Just my luck, our team was actually...accepted! We were officially in! Woohoo! Not. I'll be honest, I wasn't all that pumped. Over the next month or two, riding on this long bike ride always nagged at the back of my mind and the fact that I didn't own a bike was always there too. How was I going to train if I didn't have a road bike? Being the procrastinator that I am, it wasn't until a month before the ride that figured I should really start training if I was really going to do this ride. I got the guts up to ask my outdoorsy friend Leslie if I could use one of their bikes to train. Luckily she trusted me. Road bikes are pricey!

Training
I invited Leslie to be my mentor and she took Melinda and I on our first ride. Things started out a little rocky for me. Literally. I put my feet in the toe clip shoes (whatever they're called), got on the bike, and clipped my right foot into the peddle. Easy. Then came the tricky part, clipping my left foot in while my right foot was clipped. Not so easy. I started to roll down her gravely driveway trying to clip in my left foot all the while tipping over to the right. I was done. Since I couldn't unclip my right foot before hitting the ground, I ended up with a very bloody knee, low self esteem when it came to using the clips, and a bruised ego. I used my tennis shoes for the next couple of rides. Learning the gears was also new to me and took a few rides to get it down. We were getting closer to ride day and I knew I'd be better off if I used the clips instead of my tennis shoes. I decided to go out on my front grass and practice. Timber! I fell over again. When Chad got home I made him walk out to the cul de sac with me to practice. I felt like a kid again, but I finally got the hang of it and to this day I haven't gotten stuck in my clips again. Yay! I quickly realized after the second ride and after getting used to those tiny tires that I really enjoyed riding. The only thing I don't enjoy about road biking are the passing cars. During that 4 weeks I went on about four rides, two 20 milers, and two 30 milers. Ready or not, I was gonna do 50.

Race Day
Kim, Carin, Melinda, and I drove to Logan where we met up with Abby and Holly. Going on those rides during those previous weeks gave me the confidence that I could do it, at least I knew I could do 32 miles since that's what I'd done before. I wasn't nervous at all, but felt excited. It was Friday and the ride wasn't until Saturday morning. We stayed up at Holly's in-laws cabin the night before, chatted and did our nails. Saturday morning came and I felt like I'd had the worst night's sleep (probably cause I did - for no good reason other than I always have a bad night's sleep on the first night - it's a mental block I have). Other than that I was ready to go.

Everything was great. It was a pretty flat ride and I was pretty confidant in my abilities at this point. We chatted, we sang, it was fun, we passed people which is always a confidence booster. We came upon the 33 mile mark, had lunch, and layed on the grass for a bit. When I got back on the bike after lunch I was still feeling good, and 17 miles didn't seem that far away, until after I got to the top of the first hill. It wasn't steep but it was long. I can't slowpoke it up hills, so I booked it. I like to get it over with. By the time I got to the top I was breathing heavily and I soon felt my legs cramping up. I was in PAIN. I felt like any moment my legs would seize up and the intense pain would not go away, but I kept pushing through. We then came upon a much steeper hill (at least steep for someone who'd already gone 37 miles and who was cramping up like crazy). But I made it. It was refreshing to get to the top and see that I could coast down the nice steep hill below. Although I couldn't totally enjoy it since I was so scared I'd fall and I was still in so much pain. I cried and prayed for safety the whole way down the hill. My teammates were much more enthusiastic about the huge hill than I was as they cruised down at 40mph. It wasn't too much longer after we got to the bottom of the hill that my legs finally stopped cramping (although the burning was still there) and the ride became a little more enjoyable. At the 42 mile mark we heard a loud pop and realized that not only had Abby's tube popped but also her tire had a hole in it. We thought her ride was officially over (which would have been sad since she was the one who orchestrated the whole thing). Luckily they had a service crew come and fix up Abby's tire. They replaced her tube, pumped it up to half of what it should be, and put a cardboard in between the tube and the tire. We weren't so sure she'd make it without it popping again. We were just glad it didn't pop on the way down as she was going 40mph. That could have been bad. After her tire was fixed up we only had 8 miles to go. The long break did my legs good and I was ready to do another 20, until about 4 miles in, my legs and butt were hurting by then, and I was just mentally ready to be done! I couldn't get to the finish line soon enough. The finish line finally came and Holly's family and Abby's husband were there to cheer us in.

It felt good!! I accomplished something I really didn't know I could do when I signed up and I found a new hobby. It was a win win. I wish I had more pictures to post from the ride, but just my luck, my memory card was full 3 pictures in (curse those children who get ahold of my phone and take random pictures and videos).

The rest of the evening was spent feeling...well, really tired. We were all tired, physically and mentally. I felt like my mind was on a different planet for the rest of the evening. We spent at least a half hour trying to figure out where to eat dinner. Let's just say heads turned as we walked through the restaurant with our matching hot pink jerseys (and on a sidenote, we got more than one compliment from ladies on the road about our cute jerseys). Later we sat on the couch, watched a no brainer movie and went to bed, explored the woods around the cabin the next morning, went to church, and drove back home.

What a fun weekend with the Spoke N' Hot Babes!! And the good news is, I just may do it again.

"It's ok Maggie, it's just me, Gavin!"

That's what Gavin said to his friend Maggie when she was being shy at church. When Maggie's mom told me he said that, it made my day. Usually he's the shy one as she comes over, tries to take his hand, so they can walk to nursery together. Sometimes he rejects that idea, but other times we watch them walk hand in hand to nursery. Ethan calls Maggie Gavin's girlfriend, we just call her a friend. He's too young to date.

He's officially three now, which is that magical age when really funny things start to come out of their mouths in rapid succession. I love this age. The time has come that I will no doubt be adding plenty of funny Gavin quotes to the "Quotes Worth Repeating" column.

Today as he bent down on our driveway, studying a worm, he said in a very sugary voice, "The worm's so sweet!" OK, I've never heard that before.

A few weeks ago my sister Courtney was babysitting Gavin. While she was in the other room for a few minutes, he and her 2 year old son were playing. After a little bit she heard some rustling, and then she heard someone say "poopie" and then she heard "change me." That was her queue. She walked into the room and found Gavin completely naked and laying on the floor. He'd taken off all his clothes and he was telling Zane to change his diaper. Zane happily obliged, and so the 2 year old proceeded to try and put on the 3 year old's diaper. (And the fact that he's still wearing diapers is a totally different story).

The tease! Gavin is the biggest tease. He loves a reaction, and in fact, thrives off of reactions. He gets the biggest reactions when he picks his nose and chases Ethan around the house with a booger on his finger. He just loves that. Ethan...not so much. I still remember when I was changing his diaper some months ago, he put his finger near his bum bum then put his finger in his mouth. "Eww, yuck!" I exclaimed. I'll never forget that glint in his eye and the smile that spread across his face. He knew if he did it again he'd get the same reaction. And he did. He thought it was hilarious. This one, I tell ya, will keep me on my toes.

He wants to be just like his big bro!

 Ham! He would allow me to take pics of him all day if I wanted to.

Ode To The Wild Grapes

The Wild Grapes - Shelby, Ann, Tamara, Me, Brittany

This is a picture of the Wild Grapes taken 20+ years ago at EFY. This is the name people called us and referred to us as. Dorky or not, that's how it was. That's how it is. The Wild Grapes were my bestfriends growing up. We clicked. We had fun. We went to church together. To early morning seminary. To mutual. To dances. To school. We spent the weekends together meeting and hanging out with boys. We snuck out. We t.ped. We even liked some of the same boys eh hem, Kevin Lowe).They made high school bareable and fun. I loved them then and I love them now. We've gotten out of touch throughout the years and we've gotten back in touch, but whether we're in touch or not they'll always have a special place in my heart.

Instead of going to our official 20 year high school reunion (some of us couldn't make it), we had our own little reunion with just the 5 of us. Here are The Grapes now:


Shelby, Me, Ann, Brittany, Tamara


Spending this last weekend with them was SO. MUCH. FUN. It was a blast from the past. We looked at old photos, talked late into the night, got caught up on each others lives and the lives of old friends. We laughed so hard we had tears in our eyes and our stomachs hurt (at least I did). There's something comforting being with old friends, with those who knew you when you were young and awkward. When you had bad perms and braces and when you wore your pants too high with floral shirts (exhibit A: top photo). They accepted you then, and they accept you now. Although we've all gone through different life experiences, at the core we're still the same. We're still faithful in the gospel. We all married awesome husbands and have amazing children. It's refreshing.

Another highlight of my trip to Cali was seeing many of the adults that in their own way helped raise me. My parents did most the raising, but really, there were many people who were involved with that process. The Parmleys. The Jacksons. The Reeves. Just to name a few. I went to the old ward on Sunday and saw many familiar faces from 20 years ago and I couldn't help but get teary eyed. They all had a part in helping me become me. It helped me remember what an important part we all play in each others lives. This life is all about relationships and the love we show for each other. That's why we're here: To love.

Ok, I'll stop being cheesy now...Here are some more pics from the trip:

The first night. Barbeque with the Reeve Clan. In true Linda fashion there were rented tables and chairs and white table cloths. Love it. I LOVE the Reeves. If I could be a member of their family I would.

Pedicures!

Brunch with Rebecca and her newest member of the family, Kirabo. You can see him in the photo gettin comfy on the bench.

This picture was the source of some serious laughter. It was a self timed photo and I literally had 2 seconds to get back to the bench before the camera snapped a picture. In the rush I pushed the bench against the wall and inadvertently smashed Britt's hand between the bench and the wall. I felt horrible about hurting her but when we saw what the camera captured we laughed until we cried. You can see it in Britt's face. Hilarious.

And in true Wendy fashion, I must. not. offend. anyone. So if you're reading this post and wonder why you weren't mentioned, just know that you too have had an impact on my life, but today, this post is all about The Grapes.

5 Minutes of Fame

I love seeing Gavin's reaction to seeing me on T.V.



This will probably be the first and last time I'm on T.V. (unless it's on Wheel of Fortune - I'm still wanting to get on that show very badly). I had the privledge of talking to Carolyn Holly today. She's actually really friendly and easy to talk to. I appreciated that. She interviewed me, Megan, and Maureen about our stories we wrote in the Book of Mom. The interview was short and sweet, and little did I know it'd be live! I give all credit to Megan (the one in blue) who, through her connections, set up the interview for us. She's cool like that. :)

What was cool about being interviewed with Maureen and Megan is that each of us come from different sides of the adoption spectrum. Megan is a birthmother, Maureen is an adoptee, and I'm of course an adoptive mother. It's really amazing to see how each of us has been blessed by adoption in totally different ways.

The three of us arrived early, sat in the lobby, and chatted, which helped me feel less nervous. That's also when I found out it'd be live. Scary! When they took us back to the studio, it was nothing fancy, we just walked passed all the news people's cubicles. We sat around the table while they put our microphones on and we tried to help each other look presentable by making sure we didn't have lipstick on our teeth and that our hair was laying nicely. Carolyn shouted at us from across the room from her news desk (in a nice way, of course) to make sure she knew who each of us were, we watched Larry Gebert give his meteorologist schpiel, and I watched as Carolyn went through her notes and formulized questions in her head (I could just see it in her eyes). Then she came over and officially met us and shook our hands. We asked her things like where to place our hands and where to look and then we were on and 5 minutes later we were off. Botta boom, botta bang. Easy.

The best news of all was that Ethan was proud of his dear ole mom (he's at that age you know, when parents can be so embarassing). The day before the interview I talked with Ethan about being on the news and he said, and I quote, "Mom, I really don't want you to make a fool of this family." Ethan, I'm pretty sure I done ya proud (at least this time). Given 5 more minutes and it could've been a different outcome.



 

Expect To Be Surprised

I recently watched one of my all time favorite movies, Dan In Real Life. One of the closing lines of the movie is when Steve Carell "Dan" is talking about what to tell your children about life. He says, (not a direct quote, but really close) "teach them that life is full of surprises. Expect to be surprised." That line has really never stuck with me in the past, but this time it stuck and has never made more sense than it does now.

About a month ago Chad and I put our house on the market. We've been scouring the area looking for the perfect house, in the perfect neighborhood, in the perfect school district, in the perfect ward where we'd make perfect friends. All the while keeping the house ready to show with a two year old who likes to undo my doing while I'm doing it. It's not easy! It also felt like we were pushing a square peg in a round hole. Something about it just didn't fit and recently we were on the fence about whether it was time to move or not (truthfully, in my heart of hearts I didn't think we would end up moving, but was something I seemed to push out of my mind sometimes).

A surprise recently came when many ward boundaries in our stake changed, ours being one of them. About 80% of our ward broke off and became its own ward. The 20% where I live has now been combined between 3 different wards. We now even attend church in a different building. The change felt exciting, and because I knew we would be moving it didn't totally affect me all that much. Chad and I got called into the Bishop's office early Sunday morning to receive callings. On the car ride over I very confidently said, "You know what's cool about getting callings when you're moving, you get easy callings." (BTW, NEVER say that). So you can imagine my shock when I was called as the Relief Society President. Surprise!  And I bet the reaction I gave the Bishop was every Bishop's dream reaction to such a calling, "You're kidding, right? This is a joke."(repeat 3x) On Monday our For Sale sign came down. Surprise! We're not moving...The Lord had other plans.

BTW the way, the look on Steve Carell's face in that picture is not at all related to how I feel about my new calling, unless he looks overwhelmed, than it's very much related to how I feel. :)

Technically, I'm a Published Writer

I like the sound of that. I don't have a novel on the NY Times Best-Selling list or anything like that, but I have written a story about me and it's been compiled into a book with 9 other stories of motherhood. It's a Chicken Soup for the Soul type of book. Feel goods, I think. I actually haven't seen the book yet, it just got published on Friday, but it's in the mail and I can't wait to get my hands on it.

All the stories are different, but they're all centered on motherhood. My story is about experiencing infertility and how that led us to adopt our baby Gavin. The pain, the trials of faith while we waited, and the joy of holding him in our arms. It's a story that friends and family have heard parts of, but probably never knew the whole of. So here it comes world, my simple story for all to see. Honestly, it makes me feel a little vulnerable, but my hope is maybe my experience can be helpful to someone else. If nothing else, maybe it'll help them not feel so alone, as I often felt during that time.

This has been such an exciting project for me to be a part of. So, here's to marking that off my bucket list. Published writer. Check.

Feel free to buy a copy! Click HERE. Or you should be able to find it directly on Amazon in the next few days or in e-reader format too.

Aloha & Mahaho Part 3

 DAY 5
We started out our day by going down to the beach and snorkeling. Then we headed a few miles down to Pipeline. They were having a junior surfing tournament so we sat on the beach for a while and watched. Chad probably could have spent all day at Pipeline. He LOVES watching surfing. Just ask our Netflix queue. If he can't watch it in real life you can find him watching it on tv.

Then we headed to Waimea Falls. It was about a mile walk on a paved path up to a waterfall. This tree was amazing.

I loved seeing this peacock wandering around.

 Chad and Justin braved the cold water, but Lori and I decided to skip it.

Lori and I hanging out on the rocks. Yes we were wimps, but I didn't regret it. The cons definitely outweighed the pros. Admittedly, it was cool to see the waterfall, but I don't know if it was worth the $15 each entry fee. Just sayin...

Seeing this rooster made me happy because he reminded me of Kauai.

Lori heard someone talking about a bunch of sea turtles hanging out on the beach down the road, so we hopped in the car to go find them. These were the only two still on the beach, but they were cool to watch and you could see a bunch swimming in the water near the shore. Do you know why they're called Green Sea Turtles? Because their innards are green. Just a little tidbit for ya.

 Then we headed to the cute little town of Haleiwa and of course went to the infamous Motsumotos for some more shave ice with ice cream. Holy cow that was sweet! But of course tasty.

DAY 6
We went down to the beach and relaxed and snorkeled. As we were laying there a woman not to far from us, down by the water called for help and yelled that someone needed CPR. We don't know what was wrong but a man kept going in and out of conscientousness. An ambulance came and picked him up, we never knew what happened to him. So that was...eventful.

Then we got changed and headed up to check out the temple.

 

 We spent the rest of the day and evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center. This was the boat parade. Pretty cool.

Here we are at the Luau

 This is where we met the taro roll. I don't know what taro is but it makes tasty purple rolls.

 After the Luau we went to the big production. It was pretty cool, especially when they started throwing fire.

DAY 7 (Don't worry, I'm almost done)

Our trip to Hanauma Bay. They had tons of space for snorkeling. We only covered about two of the sections. I heard some kids next to us touting that they'd seen a sea turtle, which got me excited, but I never got to see one.

This seal was taking a break on the beach near us.

DAY 8

 This is the last time we saw this view from our hotel room. It was bittersweet. I was sad to go but happy to get home to my kids. About a week after getting home I was ready to come back.

ALOHA HAWAII!

MAHALO for letting me reminisce about my trip.