Just another day

Alex has been more focused at school lately.  I cannot believe how fast he is changing.  I can see the difference from day to day.  He is becoming such a wonderfull and handsome young man.  Here is Alex's new found method for effective way of doing homework. 

Eating, listening to music and doing math....all at the same time.  Did I used to do that too?

Friday morning.  Snow again!

A Curious Case of Five Fingers

Yes, it is going to be about five fingers, the walking / running shoes.  For the last couple years Tom has been wearing these for running and walking, claiming it is the best thing since sliced bread.  About a year ago I tried a pair and after 5 minutes of trying to put in each toe in a whole, I gave up and announced " I will never ever buy a pair."  Until today...Some things that we do or say in life are so dependent of our state of mind and soul.  I think I am getting older or younger, I am not sure which one should be attributed to that particular state of mind I was in that day.   Last Sunday we walked into Starting Block and I knew this is going to be a day of me walking out of the store with five fingers on.  And it was...I feel closer to Mother Earth when I wear them and I feel like I am learning to walk all over again.  I feel my "center" , the heart and the "it" of my body.  I have to be more balanced when I walk in them and never hill strike completely.  It is an addictive feeling, so much so that I cannot wait to get out of the house just to put them on again.. 
Crazy.  Here is Tom wearing his in the woods. 

Clearwater, FL 70.3 Ironman

Clearwater, FL 70.3 Ironman

still dark...
This competition was by far my best accomplishment in my triathlon training of last 15 years or so.  In 2010 I was very busy with racing, I think I participated in about 16 different races, mostly triathlons.  To qualify for Clearwater, I had to place in top 3 in my age group at one of the qualifying races.  There are about 30 qualifying races all over the world.  My lucky qualifying one was Branson 70.3 in September.  This year I also did New Orleans 70.3 and Lawrence 70.3, but i did not qualify at those.  I wonder what 2011 is going to bring, I will not race as much for sure, but I hope to qualify for the World's in Lawrence in June. 

In this picture, I am getting ready to jump into 64F water ( I'm so grateful for my wetsuit).  My age group competitors were equally happy, nervous and excited.  The water was really cold and the ocean pretty rough that day. 

Almost there!

Swim finish

This picture reminds me why I do what I do.  This man (blind) was led on a leash by his companion (brother, I think, but I am not sure) through 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run.  Such an inspiration!  Last summer during Half Ironman triathlon in Lawrence, KS I started cramping really bad on mile 7.  Next to me ran a man with prosthesis of one leg.  I caught up with him and said "great job, man."  I ran with him for few minutes, and my cramping seemed like such a trivial thing at the moment.  He helped me forget I was in pain.  In the picture above, I did not get to see this man in Clearwater, Tom took this shot, but every time I look at it I think of this man without a leg and other athletes who stay in a great shape in spite of everything.  I am so lucky, grateful and happy to be able to do what I want to do! 

Alex was very supportive right after the race.  He was so sweet, took my shoes off and kept hugging my beat up body.

Few hours after the race, celebrating.  Amazingly, I felt no pain, no tiredness, just pure happiness. 

Buried Alex.  Fun on the beach after the race.

I loved hanging out after the race with my friend Beth.  In this picture she is trying to help the birds pose, so she is turning into one, I think...(:

Jennie and Jackie, the "stud girls" of Columbia, MO.  They both did very well in Clearwater.   

Trip to Poland 2010

Dinner at our summer escape to the Lake. 

Tomek i ja.  Do we look alike?

Tom & Iza, Mazury

Alex gleboko myslacy o tym "co by to zjesc...."

Alex z dziadkiem

The view of the Mazurian lake cannot get any better.  I loved swimming there in the morning...

This is the famous "New World" street.  It used to be a very busy street, car traffic everywhere and terrible smell of fumes.  Now, it's all closed off car traffic and so much fun to walk and shop around.  It has everything I like including a piece of my home (Starbucks coffee shop). 

My parents love ice cream, I guess it is a genetic trait because I do too!  Ice cream is definitely my major downfall. 

The best part of my trip was getting to know my brother and his wife.  We had a lot of fun on our little get away trip to Mazury, the area filled with clean natural lakes and endless woods. 

My parents keep talking about starting to exercise.  Biking in the summer is the first attempt to do it.  I wish they did more of it!!! 

OK, here is me on my 41st birthday.  Here I am dancing in my parents' garage.  It was a great evening, good wine, food and the company of my parents, my brother and his wife.

We visited Hitler's secret hideout "Wolf's Nest" a place where July 1944 assassination on Hitler's life took place.  The place was surrounded by thick pinewood forests and mine fields all around, so back then it was impossible for anybody from the outside to get there.   

It was a very happy day... I swam in the morning, biked with my whole family for few hours and pedaled on the lake with Alex.  What a day!

Dad

Mom

Our Bike Trips with Alex

This is becoming so much fun!  I need to hurry up and finish blogging about 2010 before we go on our ski trip!  Today, I miss Missouri warm, colorful fall.  Last fall was gorgeous and unusually long.  We "paid" for it with the heavy snow in the winter.  I think our bike trips with Alex during that time of the year are my favorite.  He does not always want to go, but once he starts biking he gets into it and in the end we all have fun. 

Below is my all times favorite view on the trail.  You have to earn it.  It takes about 20 minutes biking from our house on the MKT trail and 5 min. of pretty steep hike to get there.  I don't have to coax him much to do it.  He enjoys climbing those wooden stairs, never stops looking for those arrowheads!  We never found one there...

If we turn right on the trail biking from our house, we can ride to the winery.  It is a very short (about 6 miles) ride to the Bistro, my favorite restaurant.  I like the food, but I absolutely love the view from there.  It was the first place we went out to in Missouri, before we officially moved here from Michigan. 

It was a perfect fall day, right after I came back from my week long visit in Poland.  We had dinner, watched the sunset and rode back in the dark!  I remember Alex was scarred to ride down the connector, it would be smart to have lights with us, but none of us thought about taking any.  Oh, well...we survived and I am sure will do it again in the dark with no lights. 

Sunday walk in our woods.  Alex is changing every day.  The last 2 months brought so many changes.  He is taller than me and is starting to sound like a man! 

Alex "blowing out" the snow. 

Just handsome.

New Years Resolution

For the longest time I was not able to come up with a good goal for this year. I think i just found it! Blogging about last year 2010 will be it. It was such a great year in so many different ways, full of travel and accomplishments. I took about 400 pictures in 2010 and I need to post many of them.

Below, starting from this Year's end...Christmas.  Alex has been asking for electric guitar, and he got it!  He plays it a lot, getting better and better every day.  His teacher Ken has a great passion for music and he is a great influence on Alex. 

Just before Christmas we went for a nice hike into our woods.  Alex found several arrowheads there in the past.  This last find was very special, because for the first time his mom found one too, finally!  It is a perfect one, pink and still quite sharp.  Alex says that the feeling of  finding an arrowhead is "like magic".  I got to experience it.  It is such a great  feeling, finding something so old among debris of nature and rocks.  I understand why Alex has been doing it for few years now.  When you find one, you keep wanting to find another one, so you keep looking and looking every time you go to the woods.  Whenever I run on the trail, my eyes wonder around looking for that perfect stone sticking out from somewhere and screaming to be picked up!  Pretty addictive...

Here, we are both happy, showing off "the precious"....

Above, is our favorite spot to look for arrowheads.  It is adjacent to our property, but belongs to Greg Martin, our neighbour.

This Christmas we went to Winter Park for skiing.  We had a wonderful time, as always.  In the past few years we were going to Copper Mountain, but the last 2 we skied at Winter Park with Tom's friends from Poland and their 2 wonderful girls, Natalia and Nina.  Alex is getting better each year.  I am so excited we get to go again this Spring Break, this time to Keystone. 

Our House

This is my first day attempting to do this!  Very frustrating, kept loosing Internet connection!  Blamed it on computer, my husband, but not myself.  Anyway, it was a great day to start this project.  Tom and I went biking with some friends, went for a hike with Alex and watched Tom making his famous "pullet Au pot." I took a picture of our house in the snow, the snow is still there, but melting as we speak.  Sunshine, blue sky and warm!  It can't get any better than that. 

It can only get worse...Our hike was great, with exception of that snowman...Alex just turned 13 last weekend, and so did his snowman...I guess it is just a curious case of puberty vows!

Picture of now covered neighbourhood, our little pond. 

Alex with his new friend Alex Currier.