Is It My Birthday Already??

I had to check the calendar yesterday to make sure it wasn't my birthday (it's Feb 21st, mark your calendars). All things lined up so much better on Tuesday than on Monday. Monday was the 4th day in a row the kids didn't have school, the cousin sleepover ended up being probably one night too long - where they forgot they were loving cousins and turned into fighting sisters. Michael weighed heavily on my heart and tears were overcome by acting ugly instead.

Enough about Monday. TUESDAY was brilliant! From morning prayers to blue skies to three unexpected gifts. The first e-mail I received was from Grace telling me that I won her TNT raffle... and that this beauty from http://www.alliedmedaldisplays.com/ was all mine :-)

Thanks to Grace and Allied Medal displays!

....then I met up with my parents at a gas station off the freeway about 20 minutes from my house. Dad called the day before and said to meet him there so he could give me something. Really? I just saw you this weekend in the comfort of my own home...now you want me to meet up at a gas station an hour and a half from where you live? Sure, I'll bite.

well...it was yet another gift ~ in the form of a decent bike pump from http://www.topeak.com/products/Pumps/JoeBlowSport

He was tired of hearing me whine about how I couldn't get my tires pumped up, I guess. I'm so grateful. I tend to be a minimalist triathlete, but even I get overwhelmed with buying things I need, especially when I'm supposed to be raising money for The LLS, not spending money on myself. Thanks Dad!

My third and final gift last night was at our first group swim at PSU. Other than trying to find parking downtown on campus, the swim itself was lovely. Afterwards, the new swim coach told me that I have great natural body positioning in the water! Hooray! These past three years of feeling like a drowning rat compared to everyone else have finally paid off. It was quite the successful day.

I did wake up at 2:30am with horrible nose stuffiness and drippiness so it appears that I'm allergic to the PSU pool. Grrrr. I went through this with my own gym last year and it resolved after a couple months, but I don't want to wait that long this time, so I'm going to have to figure something out. Maybe a benadryl when I get out of the pool since I'll be heading to bed shortly after the swims anyways. I've also heard of putting vaseline in the nostrils. I tried to use my nasal spray in the early hours of the morning, but it was too late - I think I need to try to spray right after getting done with my swim. Maybe a little of all three will do the trick.

We also received our fund raising towels this week. We don't have the website completed yet for credit card purchases, but if you are a TNTer and want a Suck It Up Princess gym towel, e-mail me and I can let you know how to purchase one. 100% of the profits go to The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

I'll do a post this week on why our tri team made "Suck It Up Princess" as our team creed. We'll also have towels soon that don't have the runner in the background and also without the TNT logo for the general public. All profits will still benefit The LLS, though :-)