"Pentathlon" (Triath + life)

Hi everyone, so I finished my triathlon today, here are some pictures:

This was coming out of the water after the 400m swim in September water (I am the one in the middle), my thoughts at this point were, "Wow...now I have to bike...it's going to be a long morning."

This is coming back from the 13 mile bike that was pretty tough hills...the 2 mile run was the last segment and that was the best part for me, I'm used to running. When I train for next year, I need to focus on getting my bike ready and my self ready for biking. It was a lot of fun though and I accomplished a few of my goals:
1. Finish
2. Not be last (I was in the middle of 200 people)
3. Not be last in my age group (Male 39 and under)
4. Don't stop swimming (hehe, that reminds me of Finding Nemo) once the time starts, biking once I get on my bike, running once I start running (sounds simple enough but so easy to want to just take a small break).
Other than my goals, I didn't do too well but you know what, it was my first triathlon and I'm only 26, the average age is 35 and it is a lot of biking so I just need to get that section down and I can be more competitive next time.

Anyways, that was the morning...the other 2 events in the pentathlon today were cleaning the car out of and vacuuming it for the first time in a year. Then helping Stashia pack up some of our stuff for out move while wrangling a sick Tryson. Yes, he is seemingly sick, poor little guy and we will both probably be coming down with it soon. I was very glad that I didn't get sick before today. Cold water is colder when you have a fever....brrrrrr. So yeah...it's nuts over here and tomorrow I am going to go to work because I couldn't yesterday. They made me a lead at work so I have responsibilities that go outside of the regular work hours most times and unfortunately I may have to work a Sunday every once in a while, as long as we can make it to a church service I won't complain. So after that Stashia and I are going to try to pick up a cheap vanity we found on craigslist for $30!!! Then we have more packing, call the new landlord to setup a time to pickup our keys on monday!!!....soooo exciting...it won't be exciting when we start moving boxes though, we just helped someone else move....hmmmmpf... Oh well, when we are in we will be happy. Take care, leave us some messages!!!

Thank you Aunt Cheryl

Hi everyone. Contrary to what we may have said before, we will be coming home!! We will still be quite strained but it is much better now. We WERE looking at $1500 tickets, $400 car rental, $1000 for a place to stay and food and that wouldn't even touch presents. We had pretty much decided that going home wasn't going to be an option. We want to thank Aunt Cheryl very much for her donation to the cause. She gave us a big boost PLUS tonight we found tickets for $1272 after taxes so we bought them and we will be flying into Detroit again, this time in December, the 17th. We will be home for 17 DAYS!!!! We do need some more help if it works for anyone...Aunt C has also been kind enough to offer us a place to stay but we would rather not have to be all over any one person's space for 17 days. If anyone has a cat free option that they think they could host us for. PLEASE let us know. Originally we were thinking of getting a furnished apartment (the majority of the $1000 mentioned above) but it seems a bit silly with so many friends any family places to stay right?!? Hahaha, we are excited and we are very great full and feel very loved to have someone give us help and to reaffirm that we have so much support back home in MI. We love you all!