Improvements (Another Pic Dump)

Recently, Jenn and I have been taking every spare minute of time we've had to make some home improvements around our place.  We've been "rearranging" all the bushes out front and cutting down the enormous ones that needed to be excavated so normal bushes could replace them.  Here is the before and after...

BEFORE

AFTER

Obviously, we still need some mulch, but it is such a big change from that massive bush that was in front of my office window.  I can finally see outside!!!  I'm working on getting the yard in shape, but it's going to be rough!  Any pointers?

Another improvement that has been a process for a long time has been the kitchen.  We ripped out the nasty countertops from the previous owners and poured concrete countertops.  With the help of a friend, we set them into place.  Since then, we put up a tile backsplash, and last night, I put on 15 coats of sealer.  Think that will be enough?  I couldn't stop as it just got shinier and deeper.  Here's what they look like.

Shiney!!! 

Then, thanks to this awesome blogger and her husband's generosity in giving us most of the materials, Maglee, our boxer, has a new fence to run around in!  Trevor, Jenn's brother, and Josh Woods helped me so much in actually installing it.  We've been doing our best to still take Maglee on walks!

Early this morning, while being on Daddy Duty, I had enough time to hang our new fixture over our kitchen table.  Out with the brass, please!!!

In addition to all the improvements, we've been having a lot of fun too!  On Saturday, Jenn, Caffrey and I went to Stone Mountain for an afternoon of hiking and fun.  I was a proud papa to be hiking up the mountain with Caff strapped to my chest as I listened to everyone make comments like, "Oh, look at those cute feet sticking out!"  It was so breezy on top that we just snapped a pick and headed down.

Of course, every beautiful day has to have a picnic!

Last week, I was able to squeeze a round of golf in with a fellow pastor as we talked ministry and enjoyed the sun.  He got a really cool shot of me.

Last night, Jenn and I went over to Tom and Colleen Kingery's house for an evening of fun!  We brought a couple of pizzas and simply had a blast.  We can't wait to meet their little girl here in a few weeks.  Caffrey really likes them both, but it was especially fun watching him talk and stare up at Tom. They're gonna be buds for sure!  (He'd better get to know him as he could be his father-in-law one of these days)

And lastly, Caffrey got his 3-month pictures a couple weeks ago.  I chose my favorite to share with you.

Reality Check

Sometimes, it's good to have a perception check on how your fitness really is.  Sometimes, a perception check just turns into a reality check as you realize that you've got a long way to go before you can conquer 140.6 miles in a day.  Yesterday was my reality check!  The good thing is that I still have 166 days till go time!

It's really hard to find some decent riding where I live.  The roads are awesome, but the traffic is really tough!  I guess I'm a little scared, but I think that's an ok fear to have.  Usually, I just go out and ride anyway, but for longer rides, I've decided that I'll go ride The Silver Comet trail.

The Silver Comet is a rails-to-trails project that goes from the east side of Atlanta (45 minutes from my house) all the way to Alabama and connects with the Cheif Ladiga trail for an additional 30-some miles.  All in total, it's about 95 miles long!  I plan on riding the entire trail one day, staying the night in Alabama, and then riding back the next day.  That'll be some good training.  Here's a visual of how long the trail is...

I've been pretty faithful about logging some solid trainer rides, but with incredible weather and a free Sunday, I decided to go for a long ride.  After hanging out with Caffrey while Jenn got some extra sleep, I loaded up my bike and headed for the Silver Comet.  I unloaded everything and took off.  Wowee!  I was flying!  I knew that my legs were in for a longer day, so I tried to spin as much as possible.  There were a ton of people on the trail, but it is wide enough that it's no big deal to pass.  Here's what it looks like with one of the many tunnels that you go through.

There were runners, walkers, riders on road bikes, riders on mountain bikes, rollerbladers, and a bunch of triathletes training.  About 10 miles in, a guy on a sweet TT bike caught me, and we started to talk.  He is a multi-Ironman and has done Louisville twice.  We had a blast talking about everything from triathlon to religion, and the miles ticked by.  At 25 miles, I turned around, and I had averaged 18.3mph on the way out.  When I turned around, I realized that it was going to be a long ride home.  Not only were my legs aching, but I realized that there was a definite headwind coming my way.  Now, I HATE it when people blame poor rides on headwinds, SO, I won't.  But, I will say that I didn't plan my nutrition very well, which made the return 25 miles really tough.  Since I've lost about 20 pounds recently, my body doesn't have too much to "eat" off of, and I didn't give it more to eat!  Well, I ate two granola bars when I turned around, but it was a little late in the game to recover.  I really struggled on the way back.  Another triathlete (girl) rode up next to me, and we talked for 10 or so miles.  Finally, I just told her to go on as I struggled to keep going.  I got dropped by a girl!!!

In the end, I rode 50 miles (first of the year) and averaged right at 17mph.  I'll take it as a solid training day, although it was a rude awakening of where I am as far as fitness goes.  My motivation is high, and I'm still excited about training.  August 25 is coming, and I'll be ready!!!

Thanks for reading

Slow Down! (Pic Dump)

Oh my word!  Life has been so ridiculously busy recently, and I think I've made it through the toughest part.  For awhile there, it was hard to even take a breath without feeling guilty that I had more things to accomplish and get done.  So here is a list of some of the highlights.

Training
 I finally have gotten motivated to get into some serious training.  The last couple months have been so crazy that I haven't felt the motivation to prioritize triathlon.  That being said, I have been putting in some decent workouts that have left me feeling like I have a really decent base to go off of when my training schedule really ramps up into some serious mileage.  I have found a really nice 7.5 mile loop near my house that is my favorite route right now.  I've also discovered how much harder it is to run while pushing a stroller.

Caffrey usually goes right to sleep.  It was cold that day!!!

Weight Watchers
When Jennifer got pregnant, she said that she wanted to do Weight Watchers after the baby was born.  She had incredible success before, and we both knew that she would have great success after.  I told her that I'd do it with her, so as of now, we've done it for 8 weeks, and I'm down 17 pounds!  Woohoo!  I'm a whole lot like Matty O...we both put on some winter weight and then use it as motivation when the season starts again.  I hear he's dropping a ton of weight too!  Jenn is having great success too, and it's actually really fun to do it together.

New Brooks Stuff
I ordered a bunch of Brooks stuff (THANKS, BROOKS!) so that I can "run happy."  They really hooked me up with the Brooks ID program.  It's awesome!  I got a hat, some tights, some compression shorts, but my favorite is my new jacket.  What do you think?

It's super warm and really comfortable!

I think I'll be placing another order soon.  What an awesome company to be so generous.  Go buy some Brooks stuff!  :)

New Bike
Some of you know that I bought a tri bike.  Why has there not been a special post about it yet?  Well, I'm still trying to figure it out.  I bought a 54cm, and I like it, but I feel a little crammed.  Then, a couple days after I bought it, I saw the same bike, only a year newer, basically brand new and a 56cm for $1000 less.  So, needless to say, I bought that one too!  It'll be arriving shortly, and I'll have to do a comparison.  I'll be selling the one I don't need, so anybody need a TT bike?  I'll do a special post about it, AND

There'll be a NAME CONTEST to follow!

Caffrey
Little Caffrey has been getting so big!  He weighed in at 12 pounds a couple weeks ago when he went to get his shots.  Poor guy...he didn't know what was about to happen.

He's really starting to move around alot.  We even think he might roll over this week.  He almost had it a couple nights ago.

He's been enjoying seeing all of his family including Grandy (Jenn's Step-dad):

and Great-Grandpa & Grandma Smith:

and Grandpa and Grammie (My Parents):

4 Generations of Smiths

and Nana (Jenn's Grandma):

This weekend, Grandy and Mimi (Jenn's mom) will be staying at our house for some Caffrey time.

Special Event Speaker:
I got the opportunity to preach for the Public High School Retreat that our Conference puts on for any Seventh-day Adventist that is in public school.  It was a fun weekend with about 100 kids that showed up.  Here's one of the times that I preached.

I also had the privilege of flying out to Loveland, CO to be the Week of Prayer speaker at Campion Academy.  I preached twice a day and then once on Saturday for church (11 times in 6 days!!!!!).  It was CRAZY but fun at the same time.  Here's what it looked like going down.

The Chaplain of Campion is our good friend Nick Clark and his wife Taryn.  We got to spend a whole week with them, which was awesome!  He's a fantastic pastor/chaplain, and it was fun to see him in action.

It was also the first time they got to see Caffrey.

You may be wondering how the plane rides went with Caff.  They were GREAT!  Jenn fed him going up and coming down, so he did terrific!

Ordination
The past too days, I have been at Cohutta Springs Youth Camp, which is our church's summer camp.  Jenn, Caffrey and I went there for an Ordination Review.  I had to put a massive portfolio of my ministry this far together for them to check out and interview us.  This morning, they unanimously affirmed my ministry and I will be ordained this summer.  Pretty cool!  Here's what my portfolio looked like.

Well, now you are all caught up on what's been going on in the Smith home.  I hope you enjoyed the pics.  Don't forget to be thinking of bike names (Hint: it's red) and have them ready for the upcoming contest.  I think I've got some pretty cool prizes that you'll like if you're into sports at all.

Thanks for reading!

Tornado Alley!

Last week, I was working in in my home office while Jennifer was in the living room doing what she seems to constantly be doing...feeding Baby C.  She was watching the weather, and I overheard the weatherman talking about the craziness that was brewing.  He said that there was a possibility of tornados, and they were heading straight for Calhoun, which is the town my parents, grandparents and uncle/aunt live in.  That made my ears perk up, and I quickly went out to see what the weatherman was saying.  He zoomed in the on the map to see the little communities that were in its path, and I knew that was exactly where my parents lived!  I quickly texted them to make sure they knew it was coming, and they did.  They had been watching the weather too.  They had seen it go through Adairsville, a town just to the south, and here's what it looked like as it crossed I-75.

Yikes!  That sucker was huge!!!  I kept watching as the twister went through their community and kept going and then called my mom.  She said that they heard it coming and had already cleared out a spot under their stairs to hide in.  Once it was on them, they both got in there and just prayed.  She said it sounded "just like a freight train," but 30 seconds later, it was gone.  My dad said that he opened the door and could see debris all over everything outside.  The Lord sure protected them as it is obvious that the tornado went right by their house!  The only damage to their actual house was some bumps and bruises to the gutters, a cracked outer pane of a tiny window, a 2x4 that spiked through their roof and let water drip onto the ceiling making a large brown spot, and LOTS of their trees down.  They were totally fine!!

You can see the tornado's path as it ripped through neighborhoods.  This is the neighborhood in front of my parent's.  Their house is right next to that lake.

The middle of the three houses closest to the lake is my parents.  There USED to be a nice thick tree line.

This is the street right before my parent's street.  I can't tell you how often I've walked this street

My dad said that he was going to be doing some chainsaw action on Sunday, so I went up to help him. As I drove in his subdivision, there wasn't much damage until I actually got onto THEIR street.  Then, all of a sudden, there were piles and piles and piles of trees that had ben piled by the curb.  There were people everywhere helping other people.  There were houses missing windows and siding and their roof.  I pulled into my parent's driveway and just lost it!  I just started crying...probably because of a little shock/fear, but also because my parents went right through a tornado and were still with us.  I got out of the car and just hugged and hugged my dad!

Just a few minutes after I got there, a whole crew of church members showed up with chainsaws and man power to clear all the snapped trees.  It was AWESOME!

There USED to be an awesome row of Cyprus trees between the houses.  The poor neighbor obviously had some damage as well as completely losing his detached garage.

We had fun even if it was hard work

Soon after we started work, my sister and brother-in-law showed up to help.  We stacked a little firewood, wouldn't you say?

One of the coolest parts of the day was when four teenagers, sophomores in high school, came over to me and said, "Sir, can we help you?"  They jumped right in and helped us pick up all the trash, shingles, busted siding and large sticks that littered the yard.  It's pretty cool to have complete strangers show kindness.  Cool kids!

Left to Right:  Braxton, Allie, Haley, Brandon
P.S.  Braxton lost half of his house but was over here helping us

It's hard to see how big those piles are, but they are HUGE! 

Some newspaper took this picture which is the house next to my parent's house.

It really is a sobering experience to see the raw power of nature.  But at the same time, it really is a faith-building sight to know that my God is so big and powerful that there is nothing He cannot do.  I praise Him for keeping my parents safe through the storm.

Thanks for reading!

The Back-Burner Blog

A couple days ago, Adena tweeted me asking where I was?  It seems that I'd gone missing from blog world!  Life gets busy, doesn't it?  One of my favorite quotes that I used in a sermon several months ago was from Craig Groeschel that goes, "If the Devil can't make us really bad, he'll make us really busy!"  With everything from figuring out daddyhood to travelling to Daytona for the Southern Union Ministerium (a conference for all SDA Pastors in the South) to trying to get motivated on Ironman training, the blog got the back burner in my life.  It happens.  But, for a quick recap:

Training:
I'm not going to lie and say that I'm killing it on the training front and haven't missed any workouts.  I've been really struggling!  I know it's an excuse, but my schedule is so jacked up with this kiddo here, that it is just so hard to get my workouts in during the morning.  My running has really suffered because of this.  And the swimming?  Yeah, well, I still haven't purchased my membership for the sweet Aquatic Center that's only 15 minutes away.  That needs to happen ASAP!  I will say that my love for cycling is kicking into gear.  Whether it is time on the trainer in front of a screen or out on the open road, I'm really enjoying riding again.  I'm ready for a tad bit warmer weather to fully enjoy it, although, it's been pretty nice recently.  I love the South!

On Sunday, I went for a ride with my church board chairman, Billy, who just got a new bike.  We had a lot of fun burning calories and sweating.

One irony that I giggled at came from a fortune cookie.  With the goal of this year to go Iron, here's what I saw as I broke the cookie in half...

Think it's a sign?  If I don't get my butt in gear with this training, that's all it will be...a sign of what could have been.

Baby C:
Baby C is GROWING so fast!  He's outgrowing his clothes by the day.  It seems that as soon as we put him in anything, he can only wear it once before he's stretching it out to the max.  And he's really getting heavy too!

Daytona:
Every five years, all the Seventh-day Adventist pastors in the South gather at the Hilton in Daytona Beach, FL for some really cool meetings.  There are terrific speakers as well as inspiring workshops to help grow our ministries.  It's really cool, because all our families get to go as well.  Jenn was so brave to go and take Baby C too.  She's such a good mommy!  Man, am I ever blessed!!!  She had to feed him every couple hours, and she was confined to a hotel room.  The only good thing was the view from our balcony.

We had pretty awesome weather with highs in the upper 70's and low 80's.  It's a good thing that I took my bike so that Josh and I could go for a couple of rides together.  Both of us have lost so much bike fitness since training for Steelhead 70.3 (Race Report - HERE).

The best part of the trip was being able to hang out with friends and family.  I loved seeing my niece!

And being at the beach is always fun!

All in all, 2013 has started off with a whole lot of blessings.  I'm one happy guy that is enjoying every minute (except for the 3am feeding) of life.  Thanks for reading.