My bike ride

Well, I did it!!! I rode my bike across the state of Indiana.
It started on Friday, July 1st.
I put the seat down in the back of the bug and climbed back there. Mike put my bike on top of me, Leigha climbed into the front seat and Mike crammed himself into the driver's seat. We dropped Leigha off at her friends house, I got into the front seat and we headed west.
We met Isabelle in Fythian, Illinois where I psyched myself up, climbed onto the bike and headed east. Belle was kind enough to let me lead so I could set the pace.
The hills were hard, but at that point, I knew nothing about hard.
Mike drove to Danville, IL and waited for us. When we got to the hotel parking lot and I saw him, I climbed off my bike and fell crying into his arms.....at this point we had barely gone half way for the day. I calmed down, drank some more stuff and we rode away.
We rode to Covington, IN that night for a total of 27 miles.
We ate at Benjamin's, a local restaurant where our waitress and a few of her colleagues started asking the other customers where we might be able to camp out that night....typical small town ;-) It turned out that there was a carnival in town for the 4th of July weekend and so we were sent over to find the fireman's tent where we could ask if we could camp out behind the carnival.
We rode down, found the firemen, and were led to a park manager. But before we were left in his care the fire chief told us we could go back to their tent and they would get us a sandwich.....typical small town.
The happily tipsy park manager led us to the back of a log cabin, just down the way from where the "carnies" were camping. We locked up our bikes and headed to the carnival.
All the while there was an awesome Charlie Daniels style band playing. So we had a pretty great soundtrack.
We went to stop at the bathroom and our happily tipsy friend said, "There you are! I was looking for you ladies!" The very busy women's restroom was out of toilet paper and he was having a hard time keeping the ladies out long enough to get in and change it......so we showed up at just the right time! He gave Belle his keys, some tp and headed off to get more from another place. We went in and replaced the tp and then noticed that the soap was out as well. We waited for him to come back, took more tp from him and told him about the soap. He then went into the men's room and took their soap and told us that men didn't wash their hands anyway. We also asked him for paper towels and something to clean up the "mess" that someone had left on one of the toilets. We got the ladies room fixed up, gave him his keys, washed our hands VERY well and went and bought a funnel cake!!!
We walked around while we ate and Belle decided that we should ride this horrific ride that I have never had the guts to go on. But I figured that I was already doing something that I had never had the guts to do....so why not? It's the spinning thing that pins you to the wall....I don' t know what it's called. We bought our tickets from the ticket guy who asked Belle if her nose ring was there because her nose fell off and she was using the nose ring to hold it on. :-)) Then we went to the spinny thing. We talked to the ride operator as we ate and he told us that he has a gum disease where they rot away from his perfectly healthy teeth and his teeth fall out of his head....and there is nothing anyone can do about it.....why do carnies get stereotyped again??????
Anyway, Belle gave him the rest of our funnel cake and we got on the ride.....I think he kept us up there longer than normal....I think he thought he was being nice......he was wrong. Now, there was no spewing or anything, but I was tired and dizzy and I felt a little like the happily tipsy park manager with just a little less happily.
Well by this time it was all the way dark, the carnival was closing down and we needed to sleep. We went back to our stuff and got ready for bed. Isabelle looked like she was dead in her body bag style bivy sack. Mike had bought me a super cool one man tent so even though I felt dead but I looked quite perky in my bright yellow tunnel!
We woke up, got ready, ate a doughnut and orange at the grocery store and set off to attempt to ride to my house.
We stopped about every 7-10 miles to rest/eat/fill our water bottles/rest/eat/rest. The heat index was over 100 that day. The hills weren't huge, but they were constant. I found out that I am a loud exerciser. And I became intimately acquainted with Heavenly Father that day. I prayed and sobbed my way up some of those hills. At 27 miles I pulled over at the top of a hill, sat under a big tree in somebody's yard, took off my shirt, freaked Belle out with my crying and made two phone calls. One to my friend Ruth who lived 3 miles away and one to Mike.
I was so disappointed with myself. I just couldn't do it. Belle was so great and didn't make me feel like a loser. She kept telling me that I had done a great job and that she was proud of me. I told her that I really was proud of what I had done but that I was sad it hadn't been enough.
Well we rode those last few miles to Ruth's house and Mike came to pick us up.
The next day was Sunday and Belle came to church with us so that Jake could pass the sacrament to her. (He had invited her to come two years earlier.) And also so she could go to Young Women with Leigha and me.
During Sacrament I realized that it was okay that I hadn't gone as far as I had planned. That when we set good goals for ourselves the Lord provides a way for us to accomplish them and if that means that Belle planned an extra two days while riding with me then He had given that as my chance to catch up to my self.
After church Mike drove us back to Ruth's house and we continued on our ride!
We had to take a gravel road detour and ride away from a couple dogs, but we made it to about the halfway mark for the day. There was a nice guy was outside his house grilling. He happily refilled our water bottles and even offered us some Gatorade. We chatted for a few and he said we were welcome anytime. "We're the Walkers" he said. I said, "Haha, we're the riders!" (afterward thinking to myself, "Pamn Pamn Pamn")
Well we made it home!
We took the 4th of July off and had friends over to eat and watch the parade. We went out that night and watched the fireworks.
We were supposed to leave early the next morning but Mike woke up with a migraine. I was worried about being gone and him needing to go to the ER, so we waited until the afternoon when his medicine had started working.
We rode 41 more miles that day. Stopping first at a vegetable stand and talking to another toothless guy and then riding another mile down the road and eating at a roadside bar....for over an hour :-/
We rode on through Noblesville, IN and stopped at a Walgreens for a break and kept heading east.
A few miles later a very well dressed cyclist on a very fancy, new bicycle rode up behind us. Her name was Amy Crandall and was out for her daily 20 mile ride. I concentrated on what I was doing and Belle chatted her up. She took us past the middle school in Lapel where she worked and then took us over to the local ice cream stand where we got a drink. She then offered to let us camp in her yard! Once we got to her house she let us shower, washed our stinky clothes introduced us to her husband Steve and her son Trent and fed us a yummy vegetarian dinner. We chatted with them for a while and then we got to sleep IN her house!
In the morning we ate and said goodbye. Belle and I were both achy and not feeling great and so 6 miles down the road we stopped at McDonald's for almost two hours. Finally we got moving.
We stopped at a stranger's house to pee and a few miles later we stopped under Little Hitch's tree to eat a snack.
Little Hitch came over on his golf cart (that said Little Hitch) with his grandkids and told us about the robberies and vandalism that had been going on in the area and let us know that since we weren't "up to no good" we could come on up the lane to the house and take a break. Well he tried to be nice, but we just decided to keep on going.
Mt. Pleasant, IN about 8 miles or so down the road. On the way we had a run in with a HUGE turkey vulture that did not want us to ride past his dead racoon dinner. He flew away so we could pass but after we were past it he swooped down in.front of us to let us know he was in charge.....scared me to death!
Once we got to My. Pleasant we ate a sandwich, cooled off and filled our bottles but there was no public bathrooms so we had to continue up the road for a mile and a half and use the "portie pot" on the bike trail. But "it's a clean portie pot".
It was a very clean one indeed so we pottied and then continued on.
Since we were already on the trail we decided to follow it for a while.
We got off the trail onto a VERY BUMPY road and rode it for 10 miles. When we finally turned onto a main highway I was a slap happy wreck and almost rode my bike into the side of a semi.
I don't remember what was so funny....?
We stopped again and shared an expired Gatorade and continued on to Lynn, IN. We stopped in Lynn for a yummy dinner at the local diner and called Mike to tell him to leave home and to meet us in Palestine, OH.
We pulled into Palestine as it was getting dark. We went into Red and Ruth's Place, the only establishment in town and sat down for a Diet Coke celebration! Belle asked Red if he owned the property behind the bar and if she could camp.back there. He said, "Go ahead and set up under that tree out there."
Mike walked in right after that and I must say that I have never been so happy to see him....except maybe after a six.month deployment....he even gave me a good hug in public!!!!
We went out and set up my tent for Belle (she had realized that an extra 2 pounds would be worth it) gave big hugs and Mike and I drove away......
So I did it. 182 miles. Nothing compared to what Izzy is doing, but a feat for me. I found an exercise that I actually love doing!
I found out that I really can do hard things and I found out that the Lord wants me to feel pride in my accomplishments.
Now, as far as my "giving up stuff too" goes......I lost another $7 in swear words on the trip.....and I kinda don't feel bad about it.....
I burned in excess of 7000 calories and I didn't lose a single pound that week. Gotta admit I'm kinda bummed about that. But I am more healthy so I guess that goal is accomplished. I have been out on only one 14 mile ride since then, but I am going back out again today. (Update:17 miles)
I really love love love riding!!!!
I am so grateful Belle for giving me the opportunity and being patient with me...... and being the only person I know that I would want to do my first ride with. She really is the coolest chick ever!
I am grateful for the rest of my siblings that acted like it was so cool that I was going to do this.....especially David who called or text me every couple days to check up on me and told me that I could do hard things....which I did chant to myself as I rode.
And I am grateful for Mike who drove almost the entire route, almost twice, to drop me off and pick me up, who told me how impressed he was with me and looked at me like I was beautiful when I looked like turkey vulture dinner.
And for my kids who stayed alone at home for two days (each) while Mike worked and I rode and who cleaned the house all by themselves so our parade friends could come over.
Because without all these people I would still be the Jessa that hadn't finished anything she started.

Hello again old friend!

Well, I am not sure if we had any specific guidelines or rules on this whole thing, but I have decided to change mine. Before any of you get mad, let me explain...no there is to much, let me sum up. So eating no meat has been a great experience for me. Not that I have not missed it, but I have come to appreciate the flavors of so many other foods that would ordinarily have meat. I feel like it will be easier to make choices about when and where meat is appropriate, as well as their sources. Starting this journey I thought that I would lose a bit a weight, when in fact I have gained it. I have been eating way more carbs than normal, especially sugary ones (probably to compensate for no meat). So for this last month I have decided to eat less meat and cut out refined sugars like David and Chelsy have been doing. I have done this in the past and love how I feel. Mix that in with less meat and I will be in business. So I am hoping that when Julia and Matt get back, I can be a few pounds lighter and pretend that I was doing something good for myself.
So to celebrate, Becky and I went to the Hearthfire Grill with a gift card, and I got sun-dried tomato, basil buttered sockeye salmon....Absolutely delicious. And since this was my transition day, I said goodbye to sugars with a warm homemade cinnamon roll. Good luck everyone and keep on posting.

We have been riding a little bit of a commitment roller coaster.....

Mike is strong and true on his no soda commitment.
He has been drinking lemonade and juices. Very good. Very good!

Jake is still wearing clothes and has eaten a few vegetables so he is a HUGE failure!

Leigha has been caffeine free (except for one outing with her friend) since her commitment. She is less than regular with her scripture reading though there is still room to improve. But still, she's doing pretty well....she does have the most self control in this house, after all.

I went for a week without riding my bike :-((
But this week I have picked it up again!
I had a disastrous ride yesterday because I didn't prepare well and I didn't pace myself. But I made up for it today by going farther than I ever have and doing it in a reasonable amount of time. I only have 6 days before I meet Belle though, so I REALLY need to not miss a day.
I am going to start with a 15 mile ride tomorrow....well, that's the plan. We'll see ;-)

Good luck to you all!
And as David says, "You can do hard things"

Everyone, Don't Give Up!

There has been little activity lately. Everyone needs to post an update within the next week.
or else?

Chelsy is so good at cooking and cooking healthy! We have lots of chicken and eat it with brown rice, whole grain noodles, fresh vegetables, fruit, and salad (recently including handpicked spinach from our garden!). We also like soups and sandwiches, oatmeal, potatoes, casseroles, lots of whole wheat waffles.

For treats we love fruit smoothies, pies and pudding. All without refined sugars!
Ask Chelsy for details on those.

For as well as we've been doing, it seems we have an implicit weekend allowance for sweets.
Every weekend we are either part of an event or social setting that has sugary things as part of the program.
Here are our 4 violations to date: S'Mores, Cookies, Donuts and Frozen Yogurt [though Chelsy maintains that hers had no added sugar. (but I saw her put dark chocolate chips on top!) ]

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No plastic grocery bags? Easy. Everyone could make this switch.
As I mentioned last time, I am so surprised at how much those things can hold.
We leave them in the car and I am doing good at remembering them. Last week I rode my bike to the store and just used my backpack for the groceries haha.

We are part of a rewards program at Smith's here in Provo and for every re-usable shopping bag we use, we get 5 cents off our groceries! It's a just a few cents but that means that the bags pay for themselves after a few months.

While we're in the green vein, Chelsy and I recently got hired to manage a house across the street from us. We collect rent, do repairs, mow the lawn etc.
- As part of our new management changes, we got all the girls informed and instructed on how to recycle here in Provo. We set up a little system for them and we hope they'll do their best to not throw away renewable resources.
Provo is finally adopting a city recycling program and the house is ready to go.

Love you all, good luck!

Finally, my words will grace you with their presence.

Oh hey. Finally figured out Jake's invites were being sent to my junk mail and while I should be working, I thought this was more important. Or more distracting.

Anyways, so the two things I had decided on giving up on were ice cream (my big dessert weakness) and letting Connor watch more the 20 minutes of TV. It has been really interesting and the TV thing is definitely not going so well. But let me start with the thing I am doing GREAT on - not eating ice cream.

I didn't realize how often I give into my ice cream cravings. On road trips I almost ALWAYS get some form of ice cream each time we stop at the gas station (my fave is the Tollhouse Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches). So those are out. We are still at my in-law's house and let me tell you, temptation is very abundant. There are these ice cream sandwiches called "It's-It" that are so so so yummy. They are oatmeal cookies with ice cream in the middle, dipped in chocolate. I have had to watch my family (INCLUDING RYAN) eat the deliciousness in front of me and stay in good spirits about it. There have also been a few Dairy Queen runs to get blizzards and I just simply said "no thanks!" Which is a big deal for me!

I will be honest though, I haven't really felt tempted to cheat or sneak anything. It is kind of nice showing some form of self control, even in just one thing.

The TV thing will have to wait until we get back to Rexburg. When we are the only ones in the house here, it is not a big deal, however when other family members are here it is a bit more difficult to keep Connor from watching TV. More on that later.

Confessions con carne

So I have a confession that for some reason I am feeling guilty about. I worked late the other night hanging cabinet doors with Lloyd and when we got home, Becky made chili stacks for dinner. Thats right, chili con carne. For those of you who don't habla espanisho, it means....con...meat. She offered to make my usual black beans but I was too hungry to wait. I feel bad, but it was the only time I have messed up so far. Today was the first time I had a hard time with the new goal. We got done playing ultimate frisbee and decided to go grab a quick lunch. As we were trying to decide where to go I asked if anyone had ever eaten taco truck. Nobody had. So I said "let's go." On the way there I came to a realization that I couldn't have a soda with my taco and was really bummed out....that's when it hit me, I couldn't even have a taco. My day was shattered. I got a vegetarian burrito instead and it was actually super delicious. Avocado seems to be an excellent meat replacement. I had a vegetarian subway sandwich and really enjoyed that as well. For all of you who have never had Quorn brand fake chicken patties...you should. They taste every bit as good as real chicken patties. I had them on a kababs yesterday and spiced them up and it was oh so tasty. Good luck everyone with your goals. This has been fun so far.

So far so good with a little bit of s'mores

Chelsy and I doing quite well on our goals.

We have used our re-usable shopping bags a number of times now and are surprised at how much they can fit.

We went camping over memorial weekend with Chelsy's sister and her in laws.
Chelsy's sister Krista met her husband Mike Di Lello dancing at BYU. I learned this weekend that
Chelsy's brother in law Mike has a brother named Ryan Di Lello
whom some of you might have seen on So You Think You Can Dance season 6.
This couple didn't camp with us but two of Mike's other brothers did and we had a good time sleeping in tents, roasting things over the fire and even shooting an assault rifle in Hobble Creek Canyon.

Of course the other couples brought some sweets and stuff for s'mores and we did good at eating our own snacks that we brought. I think Chelsy could tell I was dying to have a s'more and she let me have one. She had one too.
But I think only a s'more a week is pretty commendable.

I will post a note on facebook summarizing the honeymoon and settling into our new home.
Check there for the update!