My friend Em tagged me with this cute Bag Tag. I finally found some time to do it! Here are the rules:
1. Show your purse
2. Show all the contents of your purse (no cleaning out first)
Well I actually have 2 bags, one for work and one for Carter. Since my work purse is the one that has my wallet in it at the moment I chose to show it.
Here's my work purse. I love it! Sean got it for me for my birthday last year. Before this I had an UGLY shoulder strap computer bag that was ripping at the seams. This looks like a purse but is also my computer bag! So here's what I have in it: (starting on the bottom left)
1. chargers for ear piece and phone
2. cd's with work materials on them for clients
3. carrying case with chapstick, lipstick, blemish control, and Burt's Bees Champagne colored Lip shimmer (love it!!)
4. gum
5. pen, pencil, highlighter
6. Atlas--I do lots of driving!
7. laptop charger
8. wallet
9. Family picture holder with pics of the fam (obviously)
10. Manilla folders (one for receipts, one for each client I am working with)
11. PLATO notepad
12. Jump Drive (my entire work life is on this thing--would be lost without it--if my laptop crashed)
13. Laptop (see note above---I would be lost without this thing)
14. business card holder
15. name tag (and yet even though I wear this throughout the training lots of people still call me Jennifer. weird.)
16. wireless ear piece for phone
17. phone car charger
18. ear piece for phone (non-wireless...in case my wireless one isn't charged, duh!)
19. Blackberry--well I just noticed this didn't make it in my picture somehow. But it was in there too--and again this is something else I would be lost without! I don't know how we ever lived without cell phones and without getting emails on your phone!!
Ok now I tag
Kim C,
Katie, and
Marlee.
Carter had lots of fun today playing in his pool and mowing the yard. We were out there for 2 hours! This kid sure loves to be outside. We bought the pool today and he was so excited. I picked out a couple different pools at first but kept Carter kept saying no. Then when I showed him this pool he shouted Yes! (he's not spoiled at all). The rest of the time we were in the store, anyone we passed, Carter would say, "Hi, my pool" while pointing at his new pool. He is definitely a water baby!!
below: about to start the swim top right: running towards the finish line middle: before the race trying to calm down my nerves--I'm in the middle of the group of people smiling. 
I did it! This was my fourth triathlon but I found myself very nervous a few days before the race and the intensity of this feeling only grew as I found myself walking into the ocean Saturday morning to start the swim. Would I be able to swim in the open water? I had only been training in a pool. Would I have to stop and take a break during the swim?The recent reports of shark attacks in triathlons had me wondering why I had signed up to do this. Before I started I prayed that I wouldn't be bitten by a shark, stung by a jellyfish, or stung by a stingray (after the race they announced that out of the 900+ people who participated--5 had been stung by a stingray. Luckily I wasn't one of them). I didn't have to stop during the swim and felt good about how I did. I made my way up the sand hill to the bikes and headed off on the trail. I felt really good--averaging a pace that was faster than during my training. At mile 7, I felt something hit my leg, I looked down and saw that my water bottle holder was coming off. I grabbed the bottle before it fell, took one last chug and chucked it to the side of the road. I was coming to a downhill section that had a huge speed bump on it that I had to slow down for. There was no way I could hit the brakes with the water bottle in my hand too. I finished the biking (so I thought!) and dismounted as I saw the girl in front of me dismount. Big mistake---I was not quite to the point where I should have dismounted. It would've taken too long to get back on my bike, clip my shoes in, and get going again, so I just grabbed my bike and started running. Now it was time for the run. And boy was it hard--lots of hills. But I had my GPS watch (this was the first time I was able to use this in a race) and I had it set to show me what my pace was. I wanted to stay below a 9 minute mile. I did just that. I slowed down a little on the uphills but was able to make up for that going down. The last part of the race was in the sand to cross the finish line. I pushed as hard as I could but felt like I couldn't move in the sand. I was so happy when I finished and felt great. My goal was to be under 2 hours (I really thought I was going to get messed up by swimming in the ocean). I was ecstatic when I saw my time was 1:15:45. Not only was I way under the 2 hours but this was also a PR for me from my last tri where I got 1:19:43. I shaved off 4 minutes!! Not only that, later I found out I got 4th place in my age bracket (out of 42). Very excited. Then I found out that the person who got 3rd place only beat me by 11 seconds!! Can you believe that!?! 11 seconds! I'll get her next year...now onto the next triathlon: July 12th in Sierra Vista, AZ.
