Well, We're Sure Gonna Tri

Soooo, life has been crazy lately!  My sister graduated college and we had an awesome weekend in Nashvill e with family, sooo fun!

I took a few days in Atlanta for some wedding dress shopping and other wedding-ness fun between spring semester and maymester! And yes, we found THE dress!

A few weeks later my youngest sister in law graduated high school, which was a crazy but also completely fun weekend.

Unfortunately, that weekend DJ's Aunt passed away, so he made a quick trip to Indiana for the funeral last weekend.  It was a long weekend, but completely worth the trip, a very special time with family for him.

All of this happening simultaneously with finals week for spring semester and the busy crazy intensity of maymester. All we can say is "God is good" because it was not by our own strength we were able to make it through the busy-ness unscathed and still passing classes! :P

So, needless to say we are SUPER excited to have a weekend of down/catch up time this upcoming weekend.

However, all of this craziness has not hindered us from taking on our next endeavor.

DJ bought a bike and a gym membership, and almost as simple as that, triathlon training has commenced in the Scheidt household.

I am loving it and DJ has been pleasantly surprised by how much he likes the swimming and biking. AND surprisingly enough, I'm not hating the swimming portion!

Training together has given us more time together and a cool shared interest :)

As of right now, our official training schedule begins June 24th (I already have the schedule on the fridge, I am that excited!), and plan to race an olympic distance in Anderson, SC on October 13th and are looking for a sprint to do sometime between those two dates now.

Some of my recent favories:

1. Trigear, books, blogs, and/or articles (duh!)
No Meat Athlete is my favorite reading so far
Swim Bike Mom is another one I have enjoyed (if she can do it with all she has on her plate, I definitely can!)
Run this Amazing Day and Sweat Once a Day are two others I have looked at a little bit too :)

2. Ebay is my lifeline for finding tri gear in our budget. New for half the price? Yes please! Lightly used for a quarter of the price? Works for me! :)

3. Tracy Negoshian, I have always loved her style, but recently especially have gotten a little obsessed with pretty much everything!

4. Kind of hand in hand with tri training comes fitness research.  We did a spirometer test in my cardio-pulm class a few days ago which showed my lungs were that of a 38 year old woman, which kicked me back into seriously evaluating the food I am putting my body and am currently in the process of transitioning my diet back to vegan. (I've always known my body wasn't naturally strong as far as immune system, prior illness, etc, but this test served as a good reminder to step up my intentionality.)
And after reading this you won't know what to eat!

5. Fruits that come with summertime!!

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6. Sam Moon Jewelry

Can't beat the prices and LOVE the style!
Here are some of my recent purchases (not all for me! I promise!)

7. And I just thought this was really interesting :)

Happy Friday Eve!

Racing Away From Complacency

 I have struggled like crazy lately with mediocrity and 'just getting by.' 

Yes, I want to be excellent in all that I do, but I have hit a lull.

My life has seemingly been beating to the same drum for almost two years now and mediocrity has been the result.

Somehow I still have my meltdown "I'm going to fail" days, but for the most part things are even keel.

I know I will either pass or remediate, but somehow I will move forward to the next semester.

I know when I get home Peyton will be there to give me kisses and I know at the end of everyday DJ will have the greatest hug to give.

I think this even-keel-dom has been the spark of my racing.

I want to try something new, to challenge myself on a new level, and above all I want to push myself to rely on God in a completely new way.

Mediocrity leads to complacency and a complacent person does not think they need the Lord.

The past month has been an amazing stretching experience.

So often people criticize "spreading themselves too thin."

I would argue that those are the moments the Lord does His best work.

This past month we took 2 weekend road trips to Nashville, ran 1 marathon, and both managed to survive our finals weeks with flying colors.

Was there any way we did any of those things of our own strength?

HECK NO!

Whose strength was it that spent 4 hours studying the night after running 26.2 miles? Definitely not mine!

Whose strength was it that hit the books after a day of driving and a weekend of (well worth) late nights and fun? Not DJ's!

Not to take things overly deep, but I think training for this marathon was the Lord's way of  telling me not to just shoot for "okay" because He will carry me through even my craziest of dreams.   

Not to fear living out loud. Not to fear failure.

The fear of failure leads to melt downs.  Living in joy unto the Lord may not lead to success in the world, but it will lead to success in the Lord's eyes, which is the only way to find true peace. 

Lord,

I am doing my best to live as Timothy, so one day I can stand before You and say I have:

You, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:11-12

I love this picture. In the grand scheme of things we are so small and God is SO huge.  I am the little running dot saying "my legs hurt and I'm tired" to which He responds "I got this, give it up"
Image Source

Happy Thursday!

26.2 in the Books!

 

I did it, ran 26.2 miles to complete my first marathon!!!

 

April 27, 2013 finished in 4:53!

 

I was SO scared of failure in my first attempt, which made completing it just that much sweeter!

 

The Lord's hand was so so obvious in every step of the way too, which is just awesome!

 

Example 1:

We had planned to road trip to Nashville for the Rock n Roll Music Marathon that same weekend, but my class schedule made that nearly impossible, so we changed plans.

Thank goodness, because it POURED there, which would have made running for almost 5 hours pretty miserable!

I was so thankful to find another marathon within a 2 hour drive that same weekend.

The King's Mountain Marathon.

The hills were intense, but we had a beautiful overcast day with sprinkling in Clover, SC, which was the perfect weather!

 

Example 2:

The race I ended up signing up for was an open course, so DJ and Peyton spend the parts of the race that weren't gravel or dirt zipping around to meet me ~2 miles.  Which was HUGE around mile 22 when I needed all the encouragement I could get!  I absolutely loved having them pull up beside me, Peyton's head hanging happily out the window and DJ sitting smiliing right next to him saying "you're doing it! you got it!"  I love my husband so much!

 

Peyton was more exhausted than I was afterwards due to all of the attention he received and new things going on :)

 

Example 3:

At mile 23-24, I was hurting.  I was actually to the point that I preferred uphill runs because the eccentric muscle control required on the downhills were SO painful.  I had some awesome praise songs come on that just drove me forward.  Lots of Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, and Matt Redman! With my emotions running high, this Michael W Smith instrumental especially just recharged me!

 

 

Anyways, I have a number of friends telling me "I told you so" because in training I kept saying "what was I thinking, this is horrible, I am never doing this again"

But, it really wasn't that bad, the last 2 miles were brutal, but after and even during up to that point, I felt such a sense of accomplishment and drive. It was motivational to the point that even almost a week later, I continue with the drive not to work for mediocrity, which was a rut I have been stuck in for quite awhile.  To walk my talk and keep my eyes focused on bigger things is my ultimate goal.

 

While I am completely excited that I completed the race, it wasn't about me at all, it was about the Lord trying to reveal things that I needed to change, and He needed to stretch me that far to open my eyes.  It was an emotional race, yes, my legs carried me, but my mental and emotional strength were what got me across the finish line.  That strength is what came from the Lord.

 

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 121:1-2

 

Happy Day!

They're Getting Married!

He popped the question!

And (of course) she said yes!

 

Soooo excited for my little sister and her hubby-to-be! :)

Austin & Audrey

 

Aaaaand, I am blessed to have a husband who was willing to sacrifice so we could be there!

Austin called about a month before and asked if he thought we would be able to make the 7-8 hour trip from Columbia to Nashville for this special day.  My initial reaction was "no, that would be too much to put on DJ's plate" because he is working and taking classes full time right now, so that is what we told him.

 

Well, Austin sent this adorable e-mail out with details to the nines.  My mom forwarded it to me because of how crazy detailed it was.  Austin wants to go into some sort of special ops thing in the Army, so attention to detail is definitely good for him!  Anyways, I read it and showed it to DJ, and his response was... "We have to go!"

And my response to that was "REALLY!?!?!?"

He said that he knew if we weren't there, looking at the pictures would be so hard for me afterwards, and it would probably be a decision we would regret 5, 10 years down the road.

 

Oh my goodness, I cannot brag enough about how wise and willing to serve my sweet husband is!

That being said, here are a few of my favorite pictures from that day :)

 

The Question

 

The YES!

 

Hugs allllll around! :)

 

Group picture!

 

So excited for them and how much they have each grown to get to this point, and can't wait to see how the Lord will continue to grow them in the future.

 

Now lets get to planning a wedding! :)

 



I Can't Believe It's Already Been Two Years!

Time has flown, but at the same time when we look back at all the ground we have covered, it is overwhelming to realize how incredibly blessed we have been!

 

Our celebration this year was so much more low key than last year.  The whole idea of "our first anniversary" kind of psyched me out and I wanted everything to be perfect.  So, I guess what I learned this year is that "perfect in pictures" and perfect for us are two completely different things.

The Lord continues to teach me that comparison and entitlement are what deflates the joy out of any situation.

 

I can't tell you how frustrated I get around Valentine's season with the "He better do good" (yes, I know that is horrendous grammar) mindset.  From what I have seen, there are far too many couples that suffer from that syndrome around anniversary time too.

 

I am all for a man demonstrating love on special occasions, who isn't???

But, what is it at the expense of?  The more I thought about it, I boiled it down to two points:

 

1. As a wife/girlfriend/whatever, are we loving, admiring, encouraging, and exaulting him in the ways that he needs?  If he feels like you are his #1 cheerleader, he will want to be yours, not because he has to, but because he loves you and doesn't want to disappoint you.

 

2. What about every other day of the year??? I would much rather a sweet note left here or there, an out of the blue "I love you and wanted to see how your day has been" call or text, or even a "Could you make time to take Peyton for a walk with me, I'd really like to talk something out with you" over a few big extravagant celebrations each year.  I'd argue that if the extravagance is that important to you, its not about celebrating what should be most important.  I'm not saying there is anything wrong with "go big, or go home", just the value put on it.

 

Side note (while I'm talking about marriage): I can't remember the quote exactly, but one of my sister-in-laws shared it and went something like:

 

"Don't compare your everyday to someone else's highlight reel." 

 

What this meant to me was you have absolutely no idea why that friend on facebook's husband bought her "for no reason" flowers.  You never see posts like "my husband and I had an explosive argument last night, he slept on the couch, but he learned and sent me flowers at work this morning."  I know that isn't always the case, some men regularly show their love through gifts, etc, but the moral of the story is that the whole story is not told on social media, so make sure you don't start comparing apples to oranges in your marriage/relationship.

 

Our 2nd Anniversary Celebration

 

I had a test the day after our real anniversary, sooo, yes I did ask DJ if we could celebrate the evening after my test.  Which brings me to my favorite part of our celebration.  We don't eat out often, its just not our lifestyle or budget.  So, He called me around 11 and said he had hoped to come home and surprise me for lunch, but didn't think he was going to be able to. Instead he wanted to grab some Moe's for dinner so I wouldn't have to worry about making anything with my test coming up.  My day was made right there!  I didn't even care that he wasn't making it for lunch, I was ALL about the thought he put in :)

 

 Yes, I got flowers.  When he gave them to me he had the biggest smile on his face "Aren't you impressed I remembered those were at our wedding?" So impressed babe :)

 

Our anniversary evening feast, absolutely loved!

 

Well, that got me to thinking of something special I could do for him, and continued to spend the bulk of my afternoon (that I should have been studying through) making him one of his favorites, carrot cake.

 

Cheesy, I know, but it was the ugliest little cake I have ever made, so I had to do something!

 

Long story short, I may or may not have worked the system a little bit because rather than just one big special night, we celebrated Monday night with Moe's, Tuesday night at the Blue Marlin, and continued to celebrate with carrot cake for the rest of the week :P

 

Tuesday night was so great, we got dressed up and headed to a nice seafood restaurant downtown, had some delicious food, and walked around the capitol building like we were in high school without a care in the world. 

 

AND, he made reservations, which seemed silly for a Tuesday night, but it was the week of the Master's and every restaurant in town was packed out!  So, as they told the couple in front of us there was at least an hour wait, we were ushered right to our table. I was so proud (and so was he) :)

 

 

 

And that is a little glimpse into our crazy, simple, but overwhelmingly blessed life :)

 

Oh, PS: we bought a gun as our anniversary gift to each other, I know, so strange, nowhere close to ordinary, but I wanted to get a gun someday and DJ seriously thinks its the coolest thing in the world, so I wouldn't have it any other way!



He has Risen!

Source

 

 

Why do you look for the living among the dead?

He is not here.

He has risen!

Luke 24:5-6

 

Currently Obsessing Over

1. This video:

 

Such an inspirational song and video!

Gives me goosebumps everytime!

SO blessed!

 

2. This tea:

 

Just tea drinking in general, but this is my default





3. This running top:

 

The detail on the back is my favorite part:

 

 

 

So cute and gave me no trouble running 12 miles earlier today, awesome!

 

4. This Shampoo:

 

 

Not quite Aveda calibre, as the bottle advertises, but the quality for the price is amazing!

AND it smells exactly like the spa in our resort on our honeymoon, so I absolutely love reliving those memories :)

It makes me feel very pampered and refreshed!

 

5. This fuel:

 

 

Not a huge fan of the energy gels, plan to try the Cliff Shot Bloks, but so far these beans have been my favorite!

 





Needless to say, race day is quickly approaching, and other than PT school-ness, training, husband, and puppy get the majority of my time :)

 

Our research proposal was last Wednesday, went off without a hitch, and we were approved to begin testing!  Other than that, I am just playing catch up in classes these days and preparing for my acute care clinical later this summer

 

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend, in preparation to celebrate Resurrection Sunday!

He is risen!