1st Triathlon in the Books!

As of this morning I'm officially a Triathlete!! Completing a triathlon has been on my To Do list for awhile but the whole "not knowing how to swim" kinda put a dark cloud over registering for a race.  It's crazy how much I can be motivated from other people and they probably don't even know that they have motivated me!

I consider myself a runner- 5k, 10k, 15k, half marathons and that one full marathon that was just so much fun- right Taylor McPherson?! Judith Spriggs was also a runner but after I did my Disney fun 26.2 miles, but she did a legit 26.2 and didn't stop. This amazing mom started bike riding. I even told her I didn't like bikers... although secretly I was motivated especially after she worked her butt off and completed a half Iron Man! What?!

Run, Bike, and then there was the swim motivation... who would have thought that two little kids could be so motivating.  For three summers Kinnick and Cooper (and the best swim moms) devoted their summers to the Cooper Summer Swim Team. I loved watching their love for the water turn into a compassion of swimming. Many, many practices in all of the elements showed their dedication from summer swim team to trying out and making the Texas Ford Aquatics competitive swim team. I needed to learn how swim. If these kids could, their mom could too! It has been a hard but after practicing lap after lap I knew that I could make 50m across the pool. After a few more practices and YouTube tutorials I can now swim 400m without stopping.
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I registered and trained. This morning I was still scared of swimming, biking, and also running after biking. I want to write a complete post about training and race day but I'm so excited to share my accomplishment!  Here are some of the pictures from today... more posts to come soon!

Important Numbers, Monster Drinks, and Eyelashes ;)

Happy Friday!  I can't believe what this week has done for me!  I'm loving getting back into shape, eating "somewhat" healthier, and finally loosing some weight!  Look at these numbers- these are from Runkeeper comparing January on the left in blue to December on the right in black.  Wow!  And the numbers on the scale are moving too!  

Side note: There are numbers everywhere in life and they are as important as we want to make them! What are your running pace and distance numbers? How many marathons have you ran? Triathlons? Age? Weight?  But then I have had lots of time on my hand and took it a step further with 'Do I spend enough time reading?  Reading God's word? Reading with my kids?' 'What's the perfect number of hours to work each week?' 'How many friends can you have on FB but really have how many true friends in life?' Currently important in my life are all of the above as well as the numbers of days until my birthday and until our Spring Break vacation... (See I have lots of time on my hands!)  Is this a normal thinking, stream of consciousness for you all too?

Completing a Cooper Sprint-Tri is on the bucket list!

One step and a time- you just have to put one foot in front of the other one!

Lastly-- and this is HUGE!  I haven't had a Monster caffeine drink since last Saturday!  Seriously Huge!  I do have to admit though- rather than putting the kids to bed and sneaking back downstairs to watch my DVR full of Bravo reality shows... I have been passing out by 9:30pm!  Fingers crossed that I can work my weekend nightshifts without my former addiction!

Since I had a small milestone this week I had a "treat yo-self" day at the Cooper Spa.  I replaced my Monster drink addiction with my eyelash extensions addiction.  Crazy enough they cost about the same... LOL!  The picture on the left is what happened when my allergies hit an all time high this week and I went to town rubbing the crap out of my eye.  I basically itched all of the eyelashes off and I thought that was the end of my lash experience.  Having one eye looking Friday night ready and the other still looking like Monday morning I quickly booked an appointment with the best lash lady ever at Cooper.  Now I'm ready for the weekend... Like a Boss!

January 2017

Another year has come and gone... heck January 2017 is even almost over!  As you can view on my blog I come and go (a lot) depending on the business of life.  Last week provided me with some time on my hands so here I am -back to sharing my story.

Let me catch you up on the Krazy Kooken family.  Last August while watching our two little fish swim during their summer divisional swim meet I received a phone call offering me a full time position.  The idea of going back to work full time was in the back of my mind since Cooper was starting Kindergarten in the fall so after thoughts and prayer I worked out the details of the new position.

Long story short, my position was to be weekday (night shift) until the previous night shift worker returned from medical leave.  At that time, mid-October (ha ha), I would start working weekend nightshift.  The ideal October date was pushed back and delayed until mid-December.  I enjoyed the weekends off and feeling like a "normal family" but working every night took a huge toll on my family and my health.  I was a tired, cranky mom/wife going through life by holding onto a thread.  I can't help but blame myself for Cooper's rough start of Kindergarten :(  We were going from school, to swim practice, drive thru dinners, and trying to sneak in a nap before I had to go to work at 11pm.  I would snack at work throughout the night to try to stay awake, come home and eat breakfast before trying to sleep during the day, and then wake up for lunch... eating crapy food all of the time without exercise has lead me to a weight gain of over 15 pounds.

So here I am- and ready for a detox restart!  I feel like blogging about my adventures holds me accountable.  This new life style might take a bit to get used to but I can't wait to see where it leads me!  My goals include becoming a better Christian, better wife/mom,  start reading, being content, spending less money, eating healthy, and working out.  Hang on... it might be a bumpy ride!

Until next time-
Heather