First Decathlon

Joe will compete in his first decathlon of the season tomorrow at Azusa Pacific University outside of Los Angeles. It's part of the Mt. Sac Relays...just held earlier in the week and at a different location than the rest of the events!

We had a bit of a rough start to the travels yesterday. The plan was for me and Rowan to travel down to LA with Joe, pulling the RV. Then I woke up with a nasty stomach bug. I spent all day in bed (with frequent visits to the bathroom). Joe left for LA late afternoon...and Rowan and I stayed behind in the hopes that I would feel better by this morning and could come today. A few miles from home, the truck wouldn't go. Joe managed to limp the truck and RV back to the house...then decided to just leave for LA in the Mercedes (our new car that we traded our camera for!) and get a hotel. Unfortunately, Joe got sick during the night last night. We're praying that he feels better by tonight and can get some food and sleep and be ready for tomorrow! Being sick the day before a decathlon isn't exactly the ideal.

I feel much better today, and luckily, our roommate Yoo was going to LA as well...so Rowan and I are riding down with him this afternoon.

The dec starts at 1:00 tomorrow....I'll post results tomorrow and Thursday--so stay tuned!

Mom and Dad Visit/Yosemite

This post has been a bit delayed because of camera issues. This deserves a whole post, but we traded our camera for a car. Which left me temporarily without a camera (we ordered a new one that arrived a few days ago) for all the fun of my parent's visit. I had to take deep breaths and use their digital camera--a standard point and shoot (thanks for letting me wear that camera out, mom and dad!)--but it just wasn't the same as my camera. Proof positive that having the right equipment is a huge part of taking stellar photos! So anyways, I've been waiting to get the photos downloaded from their camera...and have delayed the blog-writing.

My folks arrived last Friday. Like my sister Jenny, they have made it an unofficial tradition to come visit us during the first part of their Spring Break. Saturday morning we headed out to Yosemite (sans Joe, who stayed back to take a true rest-weekend). Yosemite didn't disappoint. We took hikes that a 3-year old could handle (along with breaks in the back-pack)....and saw some awesome parts of creation. Yosemite Valley inspired much of Ansel Adams' work, as well as the National Parks movement. It's easy to see why. We stayed the night in a nearby hotel so that we could enjoy more hikes and views on Sunday.
Many of my childhood memories are of being outdoors and in the mountains with my family. We took long camping trips out west during many summer vacations. All six of us in one tent. What great memories! I love to be back in those settings with my parents. It was a joy to watch Rowan discover things as we hiked..and to have my mom and dad fully engage with her, teaching and enjoying the company as much as the beauty of our surroundings. My dad in particular had many conversations with Rowan on our hikes...and on the drive back to Stockton, he got stuck in the backseat with her as I drove. For over 2 hours, she just hammered him with questions. "Have you seen Cinderella grandpa? What are the scary parts?" and on and on with each princess she could think of.

Sunday afternoon we arrived back to Stockton, then spent a few days exploring closer to home. We had lunch at that crazy restaurant with all kinds of animal heads, went to a small but very well done zoo in Stockton (Micke Grove), played at a park, and checked out the Stockton's Children's Museum. On Tuesday, at pre-school, my mom read to Rowan's class. My mom is a fabulous reader (former kindergarten teacher and current reading consultant!), and she has started the tradition of reading to each grandchild's classes. Rowan was very excited and very proud to have Grandma there...especially because she is so animated and funny, all the kids just loved it! The photo below is underlit...it was taken while grandma was reading. Rowan's expression says it all. She was so pleased to have grandma read!Tuesday night my parents took Rowan to a movie and back to their hotel with them...so Joe and I could enjoy dinner, a movie, and a kid-free night! It was our first real date in WAY too long! Rowan did great sleeping over with them. It is so easy to leave Rowan with my mom and dad--I know she's going to not only get great care, but probably get better attention and learning opportunities than she does with me. Grandparents are just the best.

Wednesday we went to San Fran, which I talked about in an earlier post, and enjoyed both Ghiradelli's and some classic clam chowder in a bread bowl. My parents love to travel and explore...so it's fun to have a day without any agenda in a city as cool as San Francisco.

I'm always amazed how easy it is to spend time with my parents. The conversation flows easily, we laugh, relax, and always find fun things to do. I not only love them, but I really LIKE them, too.

To see more photos of our time together, click here.

Flower Girl

I took some photos of Rowan in this beautiful field of yellow flowers. They are probably technically "weeds"...they're growing all over the place. If you are a grandparent or an aunt, you can click here to see a bunch more photos from the field. Man, she's getting big!

Olympic Protests

To see an article that appeared on the front page of Wednesday's paper about the torch protests, click here. Joe and some of the other athletes are quoted.

We have indeed been watching the coverage closely. As you may know, the only North American torch stop was in San Francisco yesterday. It turned out that my parents (who have been visiting...full blog and pictures soon!) had a flight out of San Fran late last night, so we decided to spend the day in the city. We knew that the torch would be there...knew of the protests that were sure to happen. We didn't go expressly to see the torch, but thought it would be cool if we could get a view of it.

If you followed any of the coverage yesterday, you saw that the city completely changed the route at the last minute, dramatically reduced the length of the route, and changed the closing ceremony from Fisherman's Wharf to the Airport. Needless to say, we didn't see the torch. Apparently we were about 3 blocks away eating lunch when it passed by Van Ess...and we did get stuck in traffic while a bunch of cops on motorcycles were clearing a street (one cop literally hit and then shoved a car that tried to cross the intersection)...but no torch sightings. We were at Fisherman's Wharf when the closing ceremony was supposed to happen--along with a lot of other disgruntled folks, some who just wanted to see the international symbol, some there to protest.

I have an unusual vantage point for all the hoopla going on about the Olympics in China. I know many athletes who are training for a chance to compete in Beijing this summer. Everyday I witness the time, commitment, and sacrifice that it takes. But I also see the social justice side. China has been responsible for some horrible human rights violations. China's role in Tibet has taken center stage---and most people can see that China's occupation is questionable at the very least.

But why do we have to bring the Olympics into it? I get it--it's an international stage to draw attention to the political issue. But at what cost? I know that politics have often been intertwined with the Olympic Games...but that was not the intention of the Games.

The Olympic flag symbolizes what the Olympics are about. Created by Pierre de Coubertin in 1914, the Olympic flag contains five interconnected rings on a white background. The five rings symbolize the five significant continents and are interconnected to symbolize the friendship to be gained from these international competitions. The rings, from left to right, are blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The colors were chosen because at least one of them appeared on the flag of every country in the world. It's about unity. It's about having a few weeks every 4 years to be on the same playing field with people from all over the world...to have equal opportunity to compete and win at athletic events that bind us together. It's about putting aside whatever differences there may be...and just sweating together, pushing bodies to the limit, trying to break records and bring home medals. The potential for goodwill and building bridges through the Olympics is tremendous.

This is the Olympic Creed:
"The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

My fear is that questions about the political side will in any way shadow the accomplishments of the athletes who make the Olympic Team. Or worse, that they will feel pressured to not take part in the Games as a sign of protest. My fear is that the will, determination, and inspiration of our athletes in all sports will not be celebrated as they deserve.

Discus Practice

A clip of my discus practice this week. Dan is really making some progress with me. All mental...revealed in the physical. Throw went about 50M. Achilles has healed 95%. I am extremely motivated to compete. A burning fire if you will.

Joe

Easter Weekend and Stephanie's Visit

We had an exciting Easter weekend with lots of egg hunting and a visit from Joe's sister, Stephanie, who was on Spring Break from Harvard Law. The Easter celebration started on Thursday at Rowan's pre-school where they had a party. Then I took her to an egg hunt at the church we've been attending (Quail Lakes) on Saturday morning. Why is every holiday about candy? It's fun to have the activities and the excitement...but then for weeks after, all we do is negotiate when sweets can and can't be consumed. We've been encouraging our roommates to partake of the candy basket just so it diminishes faster! We also had a small egg hunt at our house on Sunday morning...Nana sent an awesome basket filled with Easter things that was the ultimate prize of that hunt.

Steph arrived late Saturday night and was able to join us for church on Easter morning. Then we came home and cooked cornish hens for Easter lunch...and ate in a sunny backyard with a few of our roommates. In the evening we had a few other friends over for pizza and played some games. A perfect day!



Joe had to train most of the time that Steph was here...and she was gracious about hanging out with me and Rowan, not really doing much! We checked out some new parks, ate ice cream two afternoons in a row, she treated us to a yummy dinner, and we hit some outlet malls one afternoon. We hung out with the neighborhood kids (there are lots of them...I posted a few pictures) and helped Rowan fly a kite. Steph also introduced me to Wi-i...and after some competitive tennis and bowling games, she handily kicked every one's butts in almost every track and field competition there was. It's always fun to have family here...thanks for coming Steph!



Rowan has been very interested in the meaning behind Easter this year. Several weeks before Easter, while walking through all the Easter stuff at Wal-Mart, it dawned on me that she probably didn't know what it was about. So right there at Wal-mart, I told her a simplified version (she knew Jesus died on a cross...I told her about the resurrection). Her eyes were wide, and when I was done she exclaimed "we have to tell daddy!"

From that day on, every day had some version of these questions: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Why didn't he just run away? How did they hang Jesus on the cross? How did they carry him to the tomb? Did he go to heaven when he died? Who is Jesus? Who is God? Why did Jesus have to die again? What is sin? What does forgive mean? Did Jesus do something wrong? Who killed Jesus? What does dead mean?

Phew. It's a lot of responsibility to have to answer these questions---not only in a way that she will understand and can handle, but in a way that is authentic and comes from a place of real belief for me. It's challenged me to re-think some things that are easy to take for granted....and be able to say with confidence, yes, I believe!

After one of our conversations, Rowan was feeling nervous about dying herself. We talked about it...I tried to take away some of her fears. Then she said "I don't like dying. I don't want to die. I want to stay here forever so that you can always hold me."

I wasn't prepared for that one...and right there in the car, I wept.

To see a few more photos of Easter and the few days after, click here.

Jenny Visit

Every March for the last several years my sister Jenny and I have managed to get together. I traveled out to Oregon one year when she lived there....and since then, she's mostly made the trip to Jonesboro (once to see a newborn Rowan and help for a week!) This year, she decided (even though she works full-time, is in school full-time, and is planning a wedding for this summer!) to come see us in California over her Spring Break.

It's hard for me to express just how much I love to be with my sister. It's the kind of thing you always HOPE will happen as you get older....that more than just sisters, you'll be good friends. Jenny is truly one of my best friends. We talk on the phone almost every day. She is gracious, kind, self-less, thoughtful, positive, flexible, and gorgeous. Rowan wore her out....and Jenny never once complained about the endless requests to play. We mostly just hung around Stockton...went to the park, brought Rowan to pre-school, did some shopping. It was relaxing and rejuvenating to have her here!

To see more photos of our time together, click here. I took some photos of Jenny to submit to Istockphoto...I've been working on building a portfolio there (designers can search for and download photos to buy..then I get a cut). You can check out my progress here if you are interested. As you will see, Jenny and her fiance Mark are some of my best subjects! I think Jenny is just beautiful...and she was willing to put up with my crazy idea to get some shots of her.



I also added a set to Flickr from a photo shoot I did in Sacramento while Jenny was here (another example of my sister's graciousness...she not only tended to Rowan while I took photos, she also dangled rattles over my head to get the babies' attention!) My friend Edye referred me to 3 moms with their 4/5 month old babies...so I went to their play-date and took lots of photos! It was fun to do this again. Click here to see some.



One other special thing that happened while Jenny was here was an afternoon spent with some dear friends from Jonesboro. Dave and Rebecca Matthew's house was a home-away-from-home for us in Jonesboro, they are a family who took us in...gave us good advice, loved us, let us show up unannounced to swim in their pool and then fed us fabulous dinners. Ironically, they lived in Stockton for many years before they moved to Jonesboro. They were in town just for a few days....and we got to attend church with them, were treated to a yummy lunch with some of their old friends from Stockton, and then wandered around downtown with them and their two sons, Micah and Ben. We were reminded of why we always gravitated to their house in Jonesboro...good conversation, lots of laughter. It made me really miss Jonesboro. I forgot my camera that day...so no photos to post....but it really made us feel special to get a chunk of their time when they had so little of it in Stockton.

Nothing If Not Stronger

Hello. I don't actually have the energy to do a long entry tonight, as I am fatigued beyond recognition. Thought I would at least throw up a quick vid of part of my lifting session. Then I have to go downstairs and eat until I go to sleep. We have been doing body fat testing on a regular basis, and mine has been too low. Means that I am not getting enough calories in my diet to offset the training that I am doing. This means I have been catabolic, and using muscle as energy instead of stored fat. Not good to do early in the season. So a few weeks ago Dan upped my caloric intake by 1000 calories. I gained 4 pounds, but no increase in body fat. So again I have been asked to increase it by another 1000. So my daily intake is somewhere around 7-9000 calories now. Sounds like fun...but it is not. It is a lot of work to eat that much. So off I go to begin the gorging. Joe

Newspaper Photo

Click here to see a photo of Joe and Rowan that appeared in the paper today. There was a "meet and greet" open house at the training facility at the Port of Stockton yesterday--so lots of business members, community members, and news representatives were present. The Record snapped a shot when Rowan ran over to say hi to Joe.

Update

This is a quick update mostly to give some links to our Flickr account for a bunch of photos I posted. The photo above is of the new training facility at the Port of Stockton. Click here to see a bunch more pictures of the building, plus a few of a discus practice that the throwers did at a local high school...so the high schoolers could see some professional throwing.



Rowan had her first week of pre-school and it went great. The photo below is from her first day. She was very proud and excited and from what she reported, all went well. It's hard to know for sure...the details come out in spurts, and we're never sure what to believe. But it's a relief to have her in something a few days a week--will offer social outlets for her, and work time for me!

Click here to see some random pictures from the last few months, including oil collecting, playdate, laundromat, and Rowan having some fun in the mirror.



If you want to see a few interior shots of the new house we're renting, click here.

New Digs

As many of you blog-readers know, the group of athletes here is now training at the Port of Stockton, under a local non-profit called Tri-Valley Athletics (you can check out their developing website at www.trivalleyathletics.com) The move has been stressful, but good. We spent all of February making the nearly one-hour commute from our RV park to Stockton...and trying to figure out where we could park the RV closer to the training facility.

When it was clear that we could not find a free place to park the RV...we became open to other living situations. A group of athletes had been living together in Oakley (near the old training facility), and were also looking to be closer to Stockton. So we had two options: pay $600 a month at an RV park and stay in the RV, or pay $400 a month to live in a big house with these athletes.

We decided to move into a house---and last week we officially moved into a 5-bedroom, 3-bath house about 12 minutes from the Port of Stockton. We're living with 4 other athletes---all pole vaulters. Two of them only train here part-time....so some of the time, there will only be two other athletes living with us. Joe, Rowan, and I have the master bedroom (and our own bathroom with a huge tub!)---complete with 2 big walk-in closets, one of which became Rowan's room. It's far bigger than her space in the RV...but it still feels strange to say her room is a closet!

So this is quite a change of direction for us. Honestly, it was a very hard decision for me (easier for Joe because it was clearly the better financial choice). I love the idea of living in an RV, and have truly enjoyed it these last months. I was in no way “eager” to get out of the RV. I like the hard-coreness of it, the thought that we can live on so little, in such a little amount of space. There has been something very simple about life, about cooking, about cleaning, about being together as a family in the RV. I feel like if we could live in an RV for a year with a toddler, we could do just about anything.

But that wasn't in the cards for us. I've always loved living with other people (we often had roommates in Jonesboro) and the idea of community. So I guess this is God's way of putting that back into my life. Already in the week that we've been living here, I've found joy in communal meals, carpooling to church, watching Rowan wrestle with Bubba and play hard with Uncle Yoo (we're going to have to put boundaries on how much Rowan bothers Uncle Yoo—for his sake!), and spontaneous conversations over lunch in the sunny backyard.

Not that the week wasn't stressful for me. I always hate moving; hate being “in-between” and not having a routine down yet. It makes me feel insecure, on edge, and out of sorts. Joe was long-suffering with me, and has been going out of his way to make the place feel like “home” for me. Rowan, on the other hand, has been full of energy and excitement about the new house. The day we were moving in, she said “It's been awhile since we lived in a stuck house!” She loves her new room, and wants to show anyone who comes over where her toys and books are. It also doesn't hurt that Yoo has a new puppy that Rowan has been playing with endlessly!

So now we begin the process of developing new routines: where to grocery shop, which library to visit, what parks to play at. I think that it was also in God's plan for me not to find a pre-school for Rowan—she would have just begun, then we would have had to pull her out! I managed to find a pre-school in a nearby town (Lodi) that had an opening--so Rowan will start pre-school next week and go every Tues and Thurs morning.

I promise to post some pictures soon--of the new house, and the new training facility. I'm hoping that life slows down a bit in the next weeks--the Trials are only 4 months away....time to focus!

Big Sur

It's been awhile since I updated---the last few weeks have been exceptionally busy with the move to Stockton (which I will detail in a later post). But we did get to take a fun weekend away (last weekend!) to Highway 1 and Big Sur before all the busyness—and I want to report on that first.

When we were moving to CA with the RV, we figured that one of the perks would be getting to utilize the RV on weekend overnights to see all the cool sites in Northern CA. Little did we realize how busy Joe would be with training---that Saturdays would all be booked with workouts and clinics. So last week was a rest week, which meant Saturday was off, and we decided to take advantage of it and spend a few nights on the coast. Even though the prediction was for a storm with heavy rain and big winds!

We hadn't towed the RV since we landed here in October---but it was like riding a bike. Buckle it down, hitch it up, get lots of veggie oil to burn. We took off after practice on Friday...and drove a few hours to a Wal-mart parking lot just north of Monterey. It felt strange to be living in the RV in a different location. When we traveled cross-country, it was all new and unfamiliar. Now that we've been living in it for 4+ months, it felt weird to wake up and walk out the front door to see a busy street and stores. Cool, but strange. It really is like taking your house with you wherever you go. We didn't have to pack!

Saturday morning we got going early---the forecast was calling for lots of rain, and we wanted to see some of Highway 1 without too much storminess. We connected to Highway 1 just south of Monterey.

Wow. We had no idea.

We did know that Highway 1 was going to beautiful....that it was scenic...that campgrounds filled up months in advance in the summer. Yada yada yada. But we were not prepared for how truly awe-inspiring it was. It was better than the famed “road to Hana” in Hawaii. Vista after vista after vista...and all this in the gray, almost-rainy weather....still brought us to our knees. Huge, pounding waves...rocks just dotting the shoreline and out into the water....green, unspoiled hills framing it all.

We drove (and stopped many times) for about 30 miles to a campground in Big Sur....Joe had to concentrate so hard to pull the RV, it was a relief to get rid of it so we could continue our exploring! The campground was in the Redwoods...and it was a challenge to navigate the RV to the site, to say the least. We took a bit of bark from a Redwood home with us on our back left bumper. Opps. Totally my fault: I was trying to take a photo of the precarious position of the RV, and failed to alert Joe to the impending bump.

By the time the RV was all settled in and set up, the rain had started. We drove south for awhile longer, stopped at some more beautiful vistas (and one utopian spot where a 40-foot waterfall literally lands on a sandy beach near where the waves crash ashore), visited a cool art gallery for awhile, and finally decided to brave a secluded beach in the cold rain. It was secluded, especially in that weather, and it was beautiful...but it was cold, wet, and windy, and we didn't last long.

The coolest thing is that the next day (Sunday) we returned to the same secluded beach...and caught the last hour or so before sunset....and saw the place in a whole new light and circumstance (see above photo). The waves had battered it for over a day... it was amazing to see the power of the ocean unleashed on a spot.

On Saturday, after hot showers, making fish tacos, and a chilled evening at the campground, we decided that Monterey Bay Aquarium was in order for a rainy Sunday. Rowan is crazy about aquariums, and since it was her birthday last week....we knew this would be a special end to her celebration week. Monterey Bay has one of the best aquariums in the world....and it didn't disappoint. The weather even cleared up while we were there, and we made it back to the aforementioned beach for sunset and some great photo opportunities.

One unexpected benefit of seeing the coast around the time of the storm was the sheer power and size of the waves that were produced. We had never seen waves so huge....we would just pull the truck over and watch....awestruck. I'm sure we will be back to see this coast in it's blue, sunny glory....but there was something moody, special, and mystical about seeing the gray mistiness reveal the water's size and strength.

We were energized. Which as it turned out, we needed for the coming week!

To see (way too many) photos of the weekend, click here.