The impossible is only impossible for those who view it as that.

"Everyone has three choices in life:  give up, give in, or give it your all."

This is basically the theme of my summer.  I have been training for my first triathlon for a long time now.  It's been fun.  It's also been incredibly hard.  There has been blood, sweat, and tears all experienced on the road (and bike grease!)  Expect the impossible y'all.

Why?
You and I have a God who is on our side who completes the impossible within us.  More than anything I want my life to be an encouragement to anyone who wants to do something crazy.  Live a little.  Put some determination into it.  The impossible is only impossible for those who view it as that. (that's a free-be from yours truly.)

Take the risk.  All these people did, and succeeded!

So this weekend I went to Baton Rouge to tri it up at rocketchix and met my future roomie, Ashleigh, down there because she was my cheerleader and we hung out and got to the race site a little after 530 am.

I was all ready before the sun was up y'all!

   After momentary fear of storms screwing it all up, I got all ready in my 'swim gear' (AKA:  sports bra and swim bottoms) and off I went!  After waiting my turn for a while, I swam the .2 in a little over 9 minutes, and off to bike 12 miles I went!

Getting my swim on.  Oh yea.

The first 6 miles were upwind and kinda hard, so the people who were on their 'second lap' (AKA:  we turned around after 6 miles) were SO encouraging to us on our 'first lap', so then after I got half way it was fun to do the same for the people behind me, and we were down wind-praise-finished in 54 minutes.  At around mile 10 or so I started to get SUPER hungry-so my 'cookies' at the finish line were DELISH!

Transition.  In the zone.

Then off to the run, of which was not that bad, considering-finished in a little over 18 minutes.  A lot of women walked some of it-but despite my tiredness, I could not justify it within myself because I was exhausted.  I am so thankful I decided to suck it up and run the dang thing.

Crossing the finish line:  best feeling I have legitimately ever felt in my life thus far.  Then to find out I beat the time I would be pleased with by 17 minutes was one of the single best moments also.  I have never been so compelled to just cry from a sheer overwhelming feeling but I was holding back tears, and had a minor failing at that one.  Incredibly in awe of what God just did with my body for and hour and 28 minutes.  Overwhelmed that I have been waiting for that moment since Christmas break and it was everything and more of my expectations.

Before the tri.  Us looking nice and awake, and dry...

After the tri.  Much more awake and refreshed.

As my first triathlon is behind me, a new race has appeared: The Bourbon Chase.  Go check it out.

200 miles.

12 runners.

2 vans of us.

15.6 miles for me (each person has a different set of legs=mine are #6 of 12 in difficulty)

The state of Kentucky at our finger tips racing against hundreds of other vans like us.

All with one heart.

I'm incredibly pumped to do this with my new tri friend Lisa and see Kentucky at the same time!
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared out of my freaking mind also, but I can't wait to see what my running looks like in October as compared to July.  Here goes something!

closet sporty girl covered up by the musicality of life being convicted by Him.

well y'all I am signed up for a Triathlon on July 27th.  Rocket Chix in Baton Rouge, LA is where it is.  350 meter swim (0.2 miles), 12 mile bike, and a 2 mile run.  I can do them all successfully in the time I want, however the fun part is now:  putting it all together.
I am more and more thankful I am home for the summer.  I get to loose weight, get in shape, and have the time of my life training for something I LOVE to do:  not awfully hard triathlons.  Maybe when I am skinnier I will like the harder ones, but for now I will stick to my cute sprint tri's.   I like the ones with more biking and swimming, and less running (anything more than 3=not my cup of tea).  Thus this is perfection for me.  I can't wait to get a TRI sticker to put on my car after this.  I can't wait to go back to school with longer hair, looking great, and a TRI sticker to prove myself.  I have decided what I am.  I am a closet sporty girl covered up by the musicality of my life.  I feel better and better about swimming, biking, and running being a healthier human being.

I have no cute transition, so on a more serious note, I have this split persona when the Lord decides to SLAP me in the face with sin that I didn't even realize.  For six years..SIX YEARS I have been drastically praying with the wrong intentions.  I mean I basically trust God, and even Jesus, and I do have the Holy Spirit and trust Him inside of me.  But I have been failing to trust Him specifically and didn't have the eyes to see.  I specifically have been not trusting Him with people I loves' salvation.  It's not that I trust myself in myself for that.  I know that grace comes through faith in Him alone, etc.  I just don't trust that they will accept the Lord.  I don't trust that the Holy Spirit will come through.  Now this is also when I began to realize that since I don't trust the Holy Spirit, I am not trusting Jesus, so I am not trusting God (thanks to the whole trinity sha-bang).  I wish I had a great ending to this blog saying I am overcoming this sin, but  I have yet to figure out how to attempt to overcome it.  What I do know is that it's pretty great how Lindy and I are studying Romans 8, and this week my 3 sermons by Piper are How to Kill Sin.  So that is pretty great.  So now it's time to practically put all of this research to use, so then the Lord can use me, His clay pot to spread this revelation to other believers.

Here goes something.

A summer of things I love.

As I realize that I am into July and still have almost 6 weeks left in this town, I am overjoyed that I still have half left, but saddened that I have already spent half of it.  Here are a few pictures to describe the past few weeks.

Ashleigh, Becca, and I decided to Kayak the whole Okatoma (13 miles)!  It was a LOT of fun and no one ended up flipping.  Praise the Lord y'all.

 My cousin had twins so my dad and I went to go see them:  Christian, and Remy.  Beautiful.

 Michelle, Katlyn and I hang out randomly and it's just awesome to get to hang out with friends from school at home.  Wonderful memories.

 I went to Jackson for the weekend to play for a church, and had lunch with this crazy group.  I loved seeing all of them and catching up.  We haven't skipped a beat.

Becca and I skype a few times a week-which is great.  We keep in touch more than we do during the school year I think.  #summersolutions

I spent the past few days priming, paints a zillion coats on Lindy's kitchen.  It is red and a tanish color now.  It's been SUPA fun to spend days and days jamming to Jesus/90's music and painting a kitchen.  I now feel totally confident to paint my own house:  trim and all.

I have lost almost 20 lbs. so far in a few weeks which is awesome!  I am doing Ideal Protein with my sister and it's super fun and challenging.  I am learning a LOT about self-control and it is super helpful in my walk with the Lord also.

Here is a paragraph of EVERYTHING I love about being here this summer.

I love everyday here.  I love getting to sleep past 7 am.  I love going to USM on the Coast.  Although I can't stand college algebra and Biology and Society lecture/lab, I love the people in class.  I love how real everyone is in there.  They are REAL people with REAL lives.  I love how I get to stay at home, and cook real food.  I love how I get to see Michelle several times a week, and randomly hang out with her.  I love how I get to randomly hang out with my friends and not think much about it.  I love not having a job.  I love getting to be discipled again.  I love getting to volunteer at GCCM every week, and see real people impacting real needs.  I love getting to hang out with Lindy and Daelynn all week, every week.  I love getting to live at home with my padre'.  I love going to PJ's 5 days a week and starting to know the barista's.  I love the random friend dates I am going on with my new found real friends.  I love the real conversations I am getting to have almost daily with people.  I love getting to use my phone when I want, where I want, with no one to tell me otherwise/another county inhibiting me.  I love how my God supplied all my needs when I doubted Him.  I love how I get to drive down the beach everyday to go to class and worship like crazy.

The End.