See, it's not ALWAYS about triathlon!

As the weekend drew to a close, I realized I hadn't blogged anything on Thanksgiving and had fully intended to do so as I know my audience has been patiently waiting to hear how my post 70.3 training has been going. Ok, maybe that's wishful thinking.

On November 20th, my sisters & I attended a baby shower for Heather (Chalfant) Buttenob, Keith's daughter. Heather & I have a lot in common: we both have 3 sisters, we are both the oldest, our youngest sister is 13yrs younger than us AND we share the same birthday. Weird!!! As those of you close to me might recall, she got married earlier this year and is already with child...and very excited I might add! She & her hubby Michael knew they wanted to start a family quickly and so they did! They've got so many exciting things on the horizon right now...still celebrating being newlyweds, a baby on the way, a new job for Michael AND as if that's not enough, a move to Chicago. All I can say is WOW!!! So much change in such a short time but how cool! The shower was a lot of fun & it was awesome that family & friends traveled from all around to celebrate Baby B. Above you'll see a great picture of Keith's four gorgeous girls: Emily, Heather, Caitlin & Hannah. Baby B is in there too if you look really close! So yes, I will be dating a grandpa very, very soon. Let's face it, she's prego now so he's already a grandpa! You know, I always knew this day would come, I just didn't think I'd still be in my 30's! Although some of my friends (Brandon Lamb) pointed out I'm basically a grandma, I've corrected him...I'm grandpa's girlfriend. Keith & I think the baby can call me Gigi (GG) for short...get it? Grandpa's Girlfriend. We'll see what Heather thinks. :)

So I mentioned my three sisters got to go to the shower too. It makes me SO happy that our (mine & Keith's) two families get to hang out on occasion. Everyone SEEMS to get along. :) After the shower, they stayed in The Woodlands a bit and hung out at Keith's as he was babysitting my nephew, Cristian. My nephew LOVES Keith...probably because they wrestle, play with trucks and act goofy. Either way, the weekend was great and a perfect way to prepare for the Thanksgiving Holiday ahead.

I'll skip all the stuff about work & my workouts and just get to the good stuff. I haven't entertained at my new home since I bought it and so volunteered to cook Thanksgiving dinner this year. I love to cook and love to entertain and LOVE Thanksgiving so this was the perfect time. My house isn't looking exactly how I want it to yet but I wasn't going to let that keep me from hosting everyone! I was lucky enough to cook for 12 folks this year and had a great time. Everything came out great if I do say so myself and the added bonus was nobody got sick after (like they did a few years ago when we all gathered at Keith's). To this day, my brother Kevin insists it was food poisoning but I don't think it was. Not everyone got sick and those who did didn't eat something in common that nobody else ate. Thanksgiving 2008 will go down as one of the great unsolved mysteries of all time. If I'm talking about Thanksgiving and what I'm thankful for, it's only fitting to include a picture of my mom as I wouldn't be here today if she didn't pop me out all those years ago. I wouldn't be who I am today without my mom and I certainly wouldn't be doing all the cool things I get to do if it wasn't for her. Thanks Mom!!!!

I did skip the Thanksgiving Day run/race & opted to run on my own. Honestly, I had way too much to do in the kitchen and since I knew I wasn't racing or going for a PR, I felt it was best to not rush around and just relax and run from home. So glad I did too b/c after I showered, I was in the kitchen the rest of the day! Whew.

This Saturday will mark 24 weeks until IMTX (ok, now we turn to triathlon talk but that IS what this blog is about). The time is going to fly by and I'm excited about that. There are so many amazing things that are going to happen before then. 2011 is shaping up to be an incredibly busy and eventful year! I've got something really special happening in February that I can't talk about here but again, those closest to me know what I'm talking about. ;) Baby B will be arriving in March so Keith & I will be spending some time in either Arizona or Chicago! April brings my 2nd 70.3 race and first OFFICIAL mDot race! April is also the month my man celebrates his bday AND when we celebrate our anniversary...just don't ask which day b/c neither of us know. Keith's second oldest, Caitlin, graduates from Texas State 1 week before IMTX and I'm so excited for her. This girl is crazy smart and finds herself on the Dean's list EVERY semester. She'll be going to grad school after that so you can imagine how proud her dad is. And then of course May 21st will bring IMTX, the day I've been thinking about nearly non-stop since June when I lost my mind and signed up. :)

So there you go, my post Gobble Gobble thoughts. The rest of the year is going to fly by so enjoy every day as much as you can! I know I'm going to try my very best to do that!