The Lieslands

With two months to go until Bean Sprout 2.0 there is a lot going on around our house. The next couple of months are going to be busy, but come September we are going to be at a very good place.

Susan was at Jo-Ann Fabrics last night when one of the employees asked if she was parked up front. By the time she got there the fire department had already arrived and the flames were a few feet high. At their peak the flames were about 10 feet high. Needless to say, the car is toast. It was a good car. I had it for almost 5 years, and we just broke 200,000 miles a couple of weeks ago.

We do not plan on replacing it anytime soon.

View The Pictures

This week Mari started Vacation Bible School and Andrew started the Des Moines Menace Soccer Camp. We were a little nervous, but both first days went very well. Susan dropped Mari off and although she was a little hesitant at first she was quickly off and finding things to do. Her teachers said that she did a great job and was very involved. All day she was in a great mood, singing songs and talking about things they did during the morning.

I dropped Andrew off and he was ready to go. He got his Des Moines Menace soccer ball and t-shirt and was off. I was worried about how he would do with a group of kids whom he does not know very well, but he was ready and excited to get out there. The morning was cut short because of inclement weather, but he is back out there this morning.

I got this old basketball hoop for free, and I think Andrew is in love!

This past weekend we went on our hopefully soon-to-be-annual Summer Solstice camping trip with some friends. We went to Elk Rock State Park at Lake red Rock. The water in the lake was so high that the only place to play in the water was at the boat ramp.

Check out the pictures.

This past Sunday through Tuesday we made our annual trek to E T Mahoney State Park, just west of Omaha, NE. We all enjoyed hiking, fishing, mini-golfing, playing Frisbee, and swimming.

Check out the pictures.

For those of you who don’t know, this past weekend I participated in the HyVee Triathlon, here in Des Moines. I just put together a brief race summary for Hope and Jeff Austin-Phillips, and thought I would post it here for the world to consume:

Hey Guys –

As my unofficial coaches, I thought I would give you a run-down of how things went. I also think it will be good for me to put things in writing.

On paper I finished right where I thought I would. The actual race itself went pretty poorly for me.

I couldn’t fall asleep the night before and ended up finally sleeping at 12:30. I was up at 4 and felt like crap. When I don’t get enough sleep it leaves me feeling nauseous. I was hoping it would pass once I got moving. Murph dropped me off a little after 5 and by the time I got to the transition area, at about 5:25 they announced they were switching to a Sprint distance because of the weather. I was disappointed, but had also had my eye on the radar, so I understood. They cut it to a 400m swim, with a time-trial start, to get everyone out of the water, a 20k bike, and a 5k run.

As soon as I hit the water I knew I was in trouble. The first 100m of the swim were rough, and I thought I was going to throw up. I think that the nerves and nausea from lack of sleep were winning the battle. Eventually I settled in and finished OK. I was definitely on the slower end, so I will work on that. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The bike went well. I felt great as soon as I got on the bike. People were definitely passing me a lot more than I was passing people, but people also were obviously some pretty serious bikers. I actually had the worst bike of everyone I saw. I am not too worried about that. 12 miles was certainly a lot easier and faster than 24.

The transition to the run was rough, but I was ready for that. The run was going OK until about a mile into it, when I started to feel nauseous again. I walked for about 100 feet, threw up a little but, and then got moving again. That also could have gone better.

Eventually I finished, Susan and Andrew greeted me at the finish line. I grabbed a drink and banana before waiting under a tent for 45 minutes for the thunderstorms to pass. Eventually I biked a mile or so to a spot where Susan could pick me up. I got home, got out of my wet clothes and crawled into bed for the couple of hours.

Physically I felt great, but my stomach was still a little wacky. I learned a lot and am ready to start training for my next race – http://www.bigcreektri.com/eventDetails.html . I think it is a little less intense than Hy-Vee, and starts a little later, which means I won’t have to get up at the butt crack, but also I really need to have a good hydration plan worked out.

This afternoon we went to Greenwood Park to walk around the lake and check out the rose garden. Andrew has been in to bird watching lately and when we got there my mom pointed out a red-winged blackbird. We noticed that it was ‘talking’ to us a lot and when Andrew walked past it it swooped down and got him in the back of the head.
It barely got him, but there was a fair amount of blood. In Andrew’s defense I threw a backpack at the bird and it got stuck in the tree with the nest that the bird was defending. My dad and I tried for a few minutes to try to get close enough to get the backpack out, but the birds wouldn’t have it. Finally, a neighborhood friend came along to help us out and he was able to get close enough to get the bag. What an adventure!

After 4 days, with a splint, two weeks with a cast, and 4 weeks with a walking boot, Mari is finally cast free. Her left calf is considerably smaller than her right, and she still walks funny, but she is getting around a lot better. She is all, or at least mostly, healed up just in time for the summer swimming season!

Today was field day at Andrew and Mari’s school. I think that it was mostly relay races. Andrew had a great time, but Mari looked exhausted when we got there. Later she said to Susan, “Field day was stressful.”

Mari has a cast that comes up over her knee. We have an appt on the 18th and they are going to take off the cast, see how things look, and then hopefully transition to a boot for a few days.

Initially, Mari wanted to be carried everywhere. Eventually she learned to crawl, and yesterday she started walking. Today she returned to school, and everything went OK. She can do just about anything she wants to, sometimes she just doesn’t want to.