A Little News

Ok.. everyone out there who has known me for any extended period of time.. please do not laugh so hard that you roll out of your chair, fall over something sharp and find yourself with serious head trauma.. or laugh so hard that you pass out from lack of sufficient oxygen levels:
I am officially... {insert drum roll} .. in-training!
I am training for a triathlon (sprint triathlon, not a big one!). I was somehow talked into this by a friend of mine recently. She is a non-athletic, anti-workout type person also.. and thought that I would be a perfect buddy for her. How she came up with this, I have no idea. Seriously. ME??? But hey - here I am 1 1/2 wks later - already having registered and paid my $100+ (non-refundable I might add).. and having completed all of 'week 1' plus 2 workouts of 'week 2' of the 'Couch to 5k' running program.
CRAZY!
The triathlon that we are entering into is the Tri For The Cure, which is being held in early August.
See? She also hit me with a cause that I am very serious about.. and at a time that my mom is seriously battling for her life against this hideous disease. What could I say?
So I'm into the 2nd week of working out. It hasn't been too painful so far.. but I'm not into mega-workouts yet. I balanced the chemicals in the pool today and made sure it is turned up and ready for me to use. I guess I need to start working on my swim skills and endurance. I don't OWN a bike, so that is going to be a bit of a challenge. I don't have the money to throw into a nice pricey bike right now, so I'm going to start looking at the used bike stores in the area. I have no idea what to even look for.. so I hope someone there can help me. Or maybe I should do some research/visit a retail store to gain some knowledge.
Yes, I am insane.
Yes, I do need this motivation to get myself moving.. and I'm very excited that I at least will be getting into shape! Hopefully I live to tell about it.. ;)

In other news, my mom is quite sick right now. Last week was probably her worst week EVER. She got more and more sick.. and by the weekend she was vomiting/keeping down no food or drink/dehydrated/in hideous pain. The core of her issue is the left side pain. The doctors can't find anything actually causing it, so they are now assuming it is the cancer in her spine/hip bones. Her last PET scan (was that 2 wks ago now?) - showed no new cancer in any organs, but the bone cancer is still charging right along. They put her on a new chemo and also a chemo pill. She's getting slammed.
She got so sick last week (she lost 8!! lbs b/t Thursday and Sunday!) that her doctor put her in the hospital yesterday. THANK GOD!! She needed it. She's still vomiting and feeling horrible, but the side pain was alleviated first by the morphine and now the oxycontin. They are going to put her on a strict pain-control regimen when she gets out. It will require that she SLEEPS (she never sleeps) and eats right. They are also doing some radiation on the part of the spine that they think could be causing this. Radiation is a last-ditch effort, which.. well.. which sucks. They can only radiate so much, and they won't do it until they HAVE to do it. Now they have to do it. Not sure what this will mean in the future, but whatever. She has to have pain relief, so I guess we're to that point.
Soo.. if you are the praying type.. please add her to your prayers. Her name is Ruth Morgan. She needs all the prayers she can get. She needs a lot of strength to get through this.
I'm trying to find a way to get back to IN in order to help out my mom and dad.. but no way to do it right now. Hubby has to travel for work later this week and part of next week.. Maya has oral surgery next week.. the girls have colds, so they couldn't be around my mom.. blahblahblah. But if I need to get there, I'll do it. I have a couple of friends/relatives who have offered to help with the girls, so that is always a possibility in an emergency. Hopefully there will be no emergencies. I was just hoping to get home to help with the house/laundry/food.

That's all the exciting news I have today. I spent this evening having a pretend picnic in the living room with Maya and several of her not-present school friends. It was so cute - she was very particular about the food we were eating, the utensils that she handed out, and saying grace several times throughout the picnic meal (of course there was no real food/utensils/etc)! She then spent the rest of the evening playing 'my bear is so sick and in the hospital and I have to take care of him'. :D