Life Update August 2011

Well its been over a year now since my last blog post and its time for an update. There are some new things that we are excited about.
First thing is that Erin and I did our first triathlon on July 30th. It was a mini-sprint which was a 300 meter swim, 5.5 mile bike ride, and a 1.5 mile run. We both had our weak events but we both enjoyed it and want to train to do another one soon. My weakness was the swim, I am not a good swimmer at all, I had to do the backstroke the whole time just to finish. I can't do the crawl stroke and the side stroke uses way to much energy (I did about 25 meters of sidestroke and was exhausted). As I finished the swim I nearly passed out I was so lightheaded. I killed it on the bike, which is where I caught up to Erin cause she started way before me on the swim. When I caught up to her we rode together and ran together and then finished together. Erin's weakness is running, so I stayed with her to encourage her along.
When we were done we both realized that we needed to train quite a bit more than we did, especially Erin. She didn't train for 1 month leading up to the triathlon, not a good idea when you've never done a triathlon,  let alone biked or ran that far ever before.
Erin found out that her work sponsors a Ragnar team and thought that it sounded fun, a 24 hour race where you run 4 legs of 5-7 miles each, despite the fact that she has told me numerous times how much she hates running. She really wants to do the Ragnar next year, so we decided to train from now up to the race next June. Which means we'll be doing some 5K's, 10K's and more than likely the Ogden half marathon next year.
On the family side of things, our kids are growing up quickly. Our oldest, Matthew, will be 6 in just a few weeks and is going into 1st grade this year. Our 2nd, Peyton (3), is going to start pre-school at Bonneville High's pre-school. And our youngest, Cody (2), is more than a handful, he feels he needs to compete with his older siblings by being louder and needier than them. He is pretty much fearless and doesn't back down from a good fight over a toy or anything else that his siblings have.
On the work side, I am still working as a drafter @ BGW Architects and Erin is still a hairstylist @ Dollar Cuts in Clinton. We have been talking about having her start up a mobile salon at nights to make some more money. One day she'll actually start doing it, probably when the kids are back in school and summer fun time is over.

Ogden Marathon 2010

So Erin and I had a crazy idea to enter the Ogden Marathon and run it together. I always wanted to run a Marathon and though it would great to run with my wife. The only problem is that Erin HATES running, which we discovered after her running twice for training. I don't like running in the cold so I had the idea to start training in March when the weather warmed up. Living in Utah my 28 years I should have known that weather doesn't warm up in March, so I kept delaying my training. I never meant for it delay into the last week of April though.

So I officially started training about 3 weeks before the Marathon date. Giving me 2 solid weeks of good training so I got to work. I ran a couple miles for 3 mornings then on Friday after work I went for a long run, I planned on doing 10 miles but only got 7.5. The next week I ran less because of rainy weather but ran two 5 milers at the end of the week. The week of the Marathon I ran one 5 miler and decided I was ready for 26.2. So I had a total of about 26 miles of training over a two week period, far less than the recommended 6 to 8 months.

Come the day of the marathon I was feeling pretty good, despite waking up at 2 am because Erin  couldn't sleep. Then I couldn't go back to sleep cause I had to get up at 4 to get ready to go. As the race started I told myself that as soon as cross the line I am committed to finish no matter what. The first 5 miles I was feeling great, I had a great pace going but I knew I couldn't keep that pace so I slowed down a little. At around mile 6 or 7 I started having some pain in my ankle and shin, it was either shin splints or a sprained ligament or something. The pain got so bad toward mile 8 that I had to stop and stretch it out and walk a little. The pain never really went away, but I ran thru it as much as I could. I made it to the top of Ogden Canyon by the 11:30 cut off time, I believe it was about 10:45 when I reached it.

Coming down the canyon, my ankle was excruciating, I walked probably 1.5 to 2 of the 5 miles, until another runner gave me some ibuprofen at around mile 20, once that kicked in at about mile 22 I felt great and ran a great pace, I'd guess around a 8:30 or 9 minute mile, all the way to the finish. Once I finished my legs felt really pretty good, a little sore, but what do you expect after 5 hours and 45 minutes of running?

Later that night is when my legs started feeling really sore. I think it might have been cause I didn't eat for like 2 hours after I got done, and I didn't get to rest at all because I had to go get my kids.

All-in-all, I enjoyed running the marathon and am planning on running one or two more this year, and actually training for them. My goal for the next marathon is to knock 2 hours off my time and get 3:45 or better. It also would have been nice if I had somebody I knew cheer me on at the finish :(

Cody standing

Well our youngest is starting to stand next to stuff. In the pic here he's playing with the train set. He's almost 10 months, so we're in for a ride with him running around soon.

I'll be glad when he finally is walking, then I can take him outside and let all the kids run around. I just need to put a fence in our yard to keep them in. Hopefully we can get one in this year.

2 year update

Holy cow its been 2 years since I've posted to my blog...and A LOT has happened in the past 2 years. Where to begin? How about where I left off...I believe we just had our daughter Peyton. She is still tiny but now she is running everywhere and started to talk a lot. I guess that's what girls are good at. :)  In October of '08 we found out we were pregnant again, unexpectedly of course. 9 months later on June 19th we had a little boy named Cody Daniel Grimley. In January '09 we decided that we needed to something to make some extra income, so we joined a technology/telecom company called ACN and we are able to offer people services they use everyday and we get paid month after month. Services like digital phone w/video phone, internet, satellite tv, wireless from the major providers, local/LD home phone, and ADT home security. Erin is still working as a hairstylist at Dollar Cuts, but she moved to a different store, in Clinton. She loves it there and is glad she moved there. I am still working as an Architectural Drafter/CAD Manager at BGW Architects in Ogden. I've survived a couple layoffs and a slow couple of years but still pluggin away, I love modeling entire buildings before they're built, its fun. We still live in Riverdale. Currently our kids go as follows: Matt is 4, Peyton will be 2 in may, and Cody will be 1 in june.

Erin and recently went to Las Vegas for a 311 concert on 3/11 day. It was great to get away from the kids for a few days. I'll post some pics.

What else? Oh ya, our snowboards got stolen from our garage last November, kind of a bummer, but getting down about it won't bring them back. Needless to say we didn't go snowboarding this year. The first year I haven't gone since I started 12 seasons ago. This will be all my ranting for now. Til next time I leave you with this, "Don't wish for a better wind, wish the wisdom to set a better sail." -Jim Rohn

IT'S A GIRL!!!!!!!

Erin and baby Peyton (p~nut) Matt and Erin and Peyton

Monday, May 19, Erin went to her midwife to get a regular check-up for the baby. The ultrasound indicated that the amniotic fluid was really low. Her midwife told her that she was going to get her a c-section scheduled at about 1 pm that day. Erin was admitted to labor and delivery where we called family to tell them the news. Around 1 o'clock they took Erin in to prep her for the c-section, after they prepped her, they told me that I could come in and watch. It was awesome to watch a surgery like that, it really wasn't gory or gross. After about 5-10 minutes of cuttin her open, they pulled the baby out.
She was breach, so they pulled her bum out first. She came out rather quickly, and started crying almost immediately, they showed her to Erin and took her off to clean her up and I followed her.

Not quite big enough to fit in her preemie clothes!
She was 5 weeks early and weighed 4 lbs 6 oz. and was 16 inches long, she had a good set of lungs and she turned a good red color. After cleanup they took her to the NICU to get her vitals and things. It is standard procedure for babies under 5 lbs to go to the NICU so they can 'prove' themselves before going to well-baby. She spent that night in the NICU, because she had a couple of fits after being bathed, changed, etc. and held her breathe and turned a little purple. The next morning she went to well-baby though.

Here is a very happy Dad!
Her head was flat, so her nickname is p~nut. She also has breach legs so they kinda look like frog legs.

Note to self: on a day like this........wear sunscreen























Or end up like this the next day

A little about me

Here's a little about me......
I'm married to a hottie named Erin;
been married for 5 years now;
we have one son, Matthew;
we have a daughter on the way, June 13;
we have 2 dogs, Keno-male-Fox terrier/miniature eskimo mix, and Sequoia-female-Border Collie;
my interest's include camping, hiking, snowboarding, travel, playing with my son, playing with my dog (Sequoia), designing homes, enjoying good music, and many other things that I can't remember right now that I'll probably post later :)
Welcome to my blog!