Muddy Buddy 2008

A buddy of mine from church asked me to fill in for his partner in a race called the Muddy Buddy. I said sure so the 3.5 of us (Samandra/Micah, Philip and I) headed up to Dallas on Saturday morning.

A little background - the Muddy Buddy is a partner race where one team-member rides a mountain bike for the first leg while his/her partner runs. At the first transition area, the biker leaves the bike, completes the obstacle and then begins running the next leg. Once the runner arrives at the same transition area, he completes the obstacle, finds the bike left by his partner and then bikes the next leg, leap-frogging his partner along the way (hopefully). This continues several times until the whole course is done. In the Dallas Muddy Buddy, we had five legs totaling 6.2 miles. At the very end of the race, the biker drops the bike and waits for the runner. Once they meet up, they complete the last obstacle together - crawling through a mud pit!!!

We made it through in pretty good time... 52 mins, 20 secs. We finished 19th out of 61 teams in our heat. Overall, I think we did pretty good, though the hardcore racers finished in 36 to 42 minutes... impressive!! There are some pics in the slideshow on the right titled Muddy Buddy. Click to view larger photos!

Micah Jay Nail's Nursery

After finding out the sex of the baby, Samandra's parents and my sister, Shelle, came into town and we spent most of Saturday painting the to-be nusery and putting up a chair rail. You can see the nursery in the slideshow on the right.

Feet, Head, Between legs shot, and Profile

We have Micah's first pics that really look like a baby. You can see them in the slideshow on the right titled Micah's first pics'.

It's a BOY!!!

Well, it's a boy! His name is Micah Jay Nail. We like to call this photo his "thinking man" pose.

The ultrasound went great! Micah was moving all over the place. He would tuck his legs in then kick them out, he also enjoyed playing with the umbilical cord. He weights about 1 pound now and we are thinking he is going to be a soccer player.

We have registered at Target, Baby's R Us and Pottery Barn Kids. So let the shopping begin!!!

Baby Bump at 20 weeks!

Well, we are half way there. 20 weeks Pregnant!!! The baby measures about 5.6 to 6.4 inches from crown to rump and weighs about 9 ounces. He or She can hear sounds by now so I try to talk to the baby often. The baby can even cover his or her ears now when daddy sings too loud in the shower. I can feel the baby move every now and then. Mostly between 2 and 4 AM or when I am on the treadmill. :) The baby is able to twist, turn, wiggle, punch and of course kick. If it is a girl she better start practicing her high kicks. My uterus is just about even with my navel and my waistline has pretty much disappeared. But I have promised myself and Shaun that it is just temporary.

Ike - the unwanted visitor

Well, Ike has come and gone and here's an update on us...

Harris and Montgomery counties didn't call for a voluntary or mandatory evacuation except for some specific zip codes, so Samandra and I decided to ride out the storm at home and leave the roads open for those that had to get out.

Saturday morning at about 3:30 AM the storm woke us and took out the electricity. We listened to the winds for a little while from our bedroom and once they picked up pretty good, we decided to take shelter away from windows. We moved the couches near the utility room and half bath so we could have a quick exit to a safe room if needed. We napped on and off throughout the morning; waking when big gusts came and the trees bent over.

At one point I heard a big gust kicking up and looked out the window to see a tree in the lot behind us snap about 2-3 feet up the trunk and fall harmlessly into the lot. A tree about 200 feet away snapped and fell across the utility lines, bringing them down completely. Since there's more than just a transformer or circuit to be repaired in our neighborhood - lines are down in several places - it may take some time to get power back to us.

The storm was a little nerve-racking during the night, but once the sun came up and we could see the trees moving in the wind, it made it easier on the nerves. We had the (false?) sense of security since we could 'see' what may be coming at us. The rain and wind continued well into the afternoon. I think the winds died down around 2PM or so. The rain continued to fall a little beyond that and then stopped.

Our house didn't have any visible damage nor did most of our immediate neighbors. Every lot around us lost at least one tree and several of them lost 2 or more trees, but none fell on their homes. That wasn't the case of other homes in the neighborhood. We were pretty blessed that we only lost branches from our trees and all of those missed the house when they came down.

We still have water and gas so we were able to cook and clean and shower at the house on Saturday. We then realized that, even though we have water, our septic will not pump without electricity; so more showers (indoor, at least) were not an option.

Sunday morning we were awakened at 4 AM by the loudest thunder I've ever heard... that and Samandra screaming and jumping on me - I can't wait to have a 2 year old along with a 25 year old that's afraid of thunderstorms! The thunder was very loud and must have struck within a few hundred feet of us. After getting back to sleep, we woke up after sun up and began cleaning the yard a little bit in the light rain. There are a ton of pine cones, pine needles and small pine branches everywhere!! ( I hate pine trees!!!!) After getting the front yard raked into piles and a little drenched by the rain, we figured we should head out to some place that had electricity so we could shower.

We loaded up and went to College Station to stay with our friends, Chris and Kelly. We're going to stay here for a couple of days until we hear that we have electricity at our house or until our offices re-open. As of now, they are without electricity as well and closed.

We'll update the blog occassionally and let y'all know when we're back in the house. We took some video of the neighborhood and will try to load that once we get back to our computer. Thanks for all the calls, texts and prayers. We made it through golden and just have a little cleaning up to do.

"Baby Bump"

Well, everyone is starting to ask about the baby bump. Here is a photo of the belly at 13 weeks.

At this point, the baby is fully formed and measures 2.6 to 3.1 inches from crown to rump. The baby weights between half an ounce and seven-tenths of an ounce, about the size of a peach. The head is still disproportionately bigger than the body, but that is expected with my large head and the "Gigantic Nail Brain." However, the rest of the body is starting to catch up. The face is starting to look more human, with eyes moving closer together. Toes and fingers are clearly separate, and ankles and wrists have formed. External genitalia are becoming visible and intestines are shifting into their proper place.

We will find out the sex of the baby the week of September 22. Don't worry, we will let you all know as soon as we find out so you can start your shopping. :)

Baby Nail

We heard our baby's heartbeat at our last doctor's visit (12 weeks). Everything is OK and Samandra is transitioning from the nausea stage to the head-ache stage. Baby's first pic is from
our previous visit at 8 weeks. We're scheduled to have a sonogram the week of Sept. 22nd, at which time we'll find out the sex of the baby.

Shaun's First Tri

Well, it's all done... I competed (and I say competed lightly) in my first triathlon in New Braunfels on Sunday, August 3rd. It was a lot of fun and I did well (especially considering that my goal was to finish without soiling myself!), but there's definitely room for improvement.

The day started early at 5:15 so we could get there by 6AM for registration. Once I got registered and set up my transition area, it was time to wait for the 8AM start! I started the swim in the 3rd heat of the morning in the men's 30-34 age group.

The open water swim was interesting...getting out of the crowd took a little work along with the fact that you can't see anything in the murky water. There were 102 competitors in my heat and I think at least half touched my booty during the swim!

Once I finished the swim, I transitioned to bike. The transition went OK except for the part where I forgot to put my helmet on! Luckily, I realized that before I crossed the line that would have disqualified me for not having it securely on.

The cycling went very quickly; the first distance marker I saw said I was at mile 8, already past the halfway mark. Coming into the transition from the bike, I had a little bit of an issue...I couldn't find my rack! I had been told by my pseudo-tri-coach, Col. Furg, to count my rack from both ends, but I failed to do that. The racks were labeled down the center aisle, but after the cycling, we entered from the end, where no markings existed!! After running around for 20-30 seconds, I finally found my spot and changed into my shoes.

As I headed out of the transition area beginning the run, the overall leader came in from the run and headed to the finish line, smoking my time by about 35 minutes! The run was immediately a little rough. My legs were pretty tight and it took about 1/2 a mile for them to loosen up, but even then, I was still slow. I was cramping for most of the run, but once I made the half-way mark (1.5 miles), I was energized to finish. As the finish line came into sight, I was very excited and covered in chill bumps...maybe that was just my body trying not to soil itself - either way, it was pretty cool! I sprinted the last 100 yards or so (probably equivalent to a slow walk for others, at this point) and crossed the line. I was greeted at the line by some of my family and had to catch my breath while I took it all in.

Overall, it was a lot of fun, especially because of all my 'fans' that were there to cheer me on. Thanks to all of you that helped... from my family that supported me and were there at 6AM with me (Samandra, mom, dad, Brian, Shelle and Pat) to Kelley in all the pre-race advice to Chris for the loaner bike (it would have been extremely brutal on my mountain bike).

Results:

I finished 388th out of 811 overall and 61st out of 102 in my age group. Full results are available at http://www.jacksgenerictri.com/. I also have some pics posted at kodakgallery.com. Click here to view the rest of the pics.

Wii Smackdown I

For those of you that do not know, we have a new addition to the family. We are the proud owners of a young, fun Wii! We challenged friends of ours from church, Travis and Beth, to a Wii Smackdown.

After a few games of bowling and tennis (unfortunately, the Nails can't claim victory), we took a shot at Guitar Hero III. We were booed of the stage after our first couple of songs, but then we got the hang of it and finally ROCKED IT!!!

Beth and Travis rockin out!!

Shaun hitting the whammy bar...Samandra and Shaun let the crowd know what they think of getting booed off the stage!!

Hello everyone we love!

Shaun and I keep saying we need to start a blog since we have such interesting lives. I was bored at work one day and finally decided to do it.


Here is an update on my hot husband: Shaun has been promoted to Finance Manager at Huntsman. He just got a pressure washer for Christmas so he has been enjoying writing his name on the driveway (and yes, the driveway really was THAT dirty!!!).

Update on Samandra: I have been working for Progressive Insurance as a Claims Adjuster for about 6 months now. I have become a scrapbook freak. Mimi got me all new Scrapbooking stuff so I finally did my Rockette scrapbook that I have been putting off for a while now and am working on the Rangerette one.

Shaun and I have completely redone the house. For those of you who have not seen it, photos will be coming soon.