Giving thanks.

Right now I'm sitting in a hospital room. It's not for me this time. It's due to respiratory complications with our little princess Isabella. We were admitted last night and she's been receiving breathing treatments all day. The Doctor has suggested that it could be altitude induced asthma. Neither Allison nor I have or have ever had asthma to our knowledge so it's strange that Isabella would have it. We'll have to see what it means for her future.




























After Thanksgiving, I'm going to resume training. Family, health, and work permitting, I'd like to be able to do several races next year. Tentatively, my niece and I are aiming to do the Moab race. I'll use that as a tune up/training race and see what I need to work on from there.
Training is still hit and miss with my knees. Still learning a new stride as I retrain myself to run correctly.
Although I'm not in the kind of shape I'd like to be and I can't do the things I'd like to do, I'm extremely thankful that I have the ability to do most of the things that I enjoy. I'm also very grateful that Isabella is as healthy and capable as she is.
Lets see what happens.

lately...

We just got back from a short trip to NC. The family got to meet Isabella and I was able to spend some time with my Mom and my 95 year old Grandmother who flew up from Pensacola.

































The day before we left CO, it snowed about 7 inches, but was 78 degrees the day before. During the winter, the snow was pretty cool and seasonably aesthetic. Snow during Spring just looks strange.














I'm hoping to be able to start running again. Haven't done much since the race. Travelling, the new job, and lack of motivation have all conspired against me. I've been on the bike a couple of times and the bike legs are still feeling good. I love my Giant Anthem! Although out here, I often wish I had about 100 mm of travel instead of the 80 on my current setup.

Trip to Monterey

Allison, Isabella and I all went to Monterey, CA for my friend Freddy's retirement from the Army. His family is all from Monterey and when you have the connections that Freddy does, you can pull some strings to make things happen so he was able to have his retirement ceremony in his hometown.













Freddy and I met at Ft. Bragg when I had just come back from Korea and he had just returned from DLI (Defense Language Institute) out in Monterey where he had learned Hatian Creole. As a linguist, Freddy speaks 6 languages fluently and is teaching many of them to his kids. We've been friends ever since we met in May of 95. We've both been through a lot of changes and I've seen him through some rough times since then, but there have been many great times as well. He's one of those low maintenance friends that you can always count on and lives a great example of how to love others unconditionally.














The trip was short, but we were able to get to see a good bit of Monterey, Carmel, and the surrounding area. It's a beautiful part of CA and seems to be largely unspoiled by over development unlike the rest of CA and much of the US. Even so, it's not a cheap place to live by any stretch of the imagination.














Isabella did great on the trip. She slept through the night every night were were there in the hotel room and she was a perfect angel on the plane ride there and back. She is such a good baby. She was even happy amongst all the chaos of his family and the retirement party and tons of overstimulation. She took it all in stride her mommy and daddy were happy to have her along with us on the trip.

Groovy blisters and a selfish daddy?

For the past few weeks, I've been doing some weight training and riding my bike on the trainer in between runs. Haven't been able to be very consistent on the runs, but every one has felt good so far. I've had to incorporate some road running back into the routines due to necessity, but that's ok for now. Surprised myself and did a 15k route in 1 hour and 18 mins with some BIG hills the other day. Since I've had to take so much time off running because of the surgery, moving, new baby, and numerous other reasons, my feet have lost the callouses and become tender. This has led to blisters where the callouses used to be and now I'm left trying to figure out the best way to manage them until I can get the base/regular mileage back up again. I've found a few routes that I can get in some long runs on the trails and will hopefully get to those soon.

Allison also started running again lately and I gladly take my turn keeping Isabella occupied while she gets back into the swing of things. She's aiming for the Denver Half marathon in June and I've just about got her talked into doing the Leadville heavy Half in July. It's cool because I can tell she's doing it because she wants to and not because she thinks I want her to. That's an important distinction for anyone who knows us. She continues to make me proud!

Being a daddy gets better every day. The little things that only mommies and daddies get to be a part of are becoming more and more special all the time. Parenthood can be such a soul searching task sometimes. I've thought to myself that I should have had kids sooner and not wasted so much of my life on myself. When I go running though, I realize that the act of running is for me only and that makes me feel a little selfish. This leads me to wonder how much and at what level I should train and indulge my love of competition as well as my love of activity in the outdoors. How do you balance/reconcile selfish desires with the selflessness of parenthood? It hasn't been much of a direct conflict yet, but I can see that it might be one day. I just want to avoid regret and bitterness if at all possible, but I'm sure that some is inevitable. Just thinking out loud.

Cuddle time!

I'm in the process of moving blog entries over to my other blog (The stuph of life) and will be returning this one to running, biking, training, racing, and injury recovery soon.

Although I haven't been a daddy for long, I'm pretty sure this is one of the best things about it. My daughter is turning me into a giant softie (especially around the middle) but I'm loving every minute of it.














Note that the cast is off the left hand now. One surgery scar is visible.



































I'm currently trying to figure out how to (easily) move blog entries from one blog over to another. If anyone knows, please clue me in.

She's home

Yesterday (Wed 14 Nov) we checked out of the hospital and brought our baby girl home after her and mommy both received a clean bill of health. We've had help from my good friend Lee in taking care of things around the house while we get used to some changes. It's been an amazing realization so far because thanks to all of our good friends and family and their generosity, we have everything we need and it's so nice not to have to worry about not having anything to provide for our little one. I think it's really cool when I notice all the different gifts from various friends and family that added up together, complete the necessities that we need to provide. It makes us really appreciate our friends and family who are part of us welcoming Isabella into the world, even if they are not here with us. Here's a short clip of her that I took of her in her room after a feeding.


Thank you all for your compliments and well wishes. We look forward to Isabella getting to meet everyone who is such a big part of our lives.

Daddy's girl

Here's a short little clip of our new girl. She's sleepy because she has a full belly. And because it's exhausting having daddy kissing her all the time.