2012 Year in Review and a Toast to New Beginnings in 2013

I realized I haven't posted anything in a while and the last thing I wanted to do was another downer post.  My last post was titled "Life is Short - Celebrate Every Moment" which was a little tribute to my friend Laurie that passed away very suddenly at a young age.  As most of you may know, my father in law has ALS and in June I did Mooseman Half-Ironman in New Hampshire for him.  You can read more on how the disease progressed when I posted on Thanksgiving.  On Christmas night, actually at 2am on the 26th, he passed away.  It has been quite a holiday.  I want to thank EVERYONE for your love and support  to Mike, his family, my family and myself through the holiday.  Carle was a wonderful man, a great father-in-law that told me I was the best daughter-in-law (even though he had one but claimed I would still be the best even if there were others).  He shared my love for math, chemistry, humor and reading so we always had much to talk about.  I had many bonding moments with my 2nd dad, as I called him, whether that be sneaking a cigarette on the back stoop and talking about my new job when I was 22 (I know I know not healthy but it was when I was young and stupid) to going to lunch when we both worked about 20 minutes from each other to chatting of the latest book we read to staying with me while I was in my early stage of snowboarding while he was skiing and everyone else was ahead to making his famous cheese dip while he oversaw when he could no longer use his hands.  It was a beautiful funeral and tribute and he would have been very happy.

Despite life's obstacles that were thrown along the way, there was some really good times... 

In racing, it was a great year for me, my training partners grew with Yasi and Team Triumph which I really feel helped push me to have a very PR year. 

In life, there was definitely lots of good moments with some new friends like Yasi and my new Brewtal family as well as Mike, family and all my wonderful friends that there is just not enough room to name them all.  They all are so different and special and are so amazing.

not to mention good brews....

and then obviously lots of good healthy food....

.....and to top it off we found out in early December that there will be another addition to our family and it's not another animal....yes, Mini FancyPants will be joining the LaCouture's come August 2013.  The most wonderful aspect in all this was that we were able to tell both our families that we were having a baby on Christmas Eve which meant that my mom was so happy (she's been impatiently waiting for a long time) and my father-in-law was able to be happy to hear the news before he passed away the next night.  Both of our families and our friends are ecstatic and it has really helped us through a tough time, especially when you see a heartbeat and a picture of an ACTUAL baby inside of you.  It was bittersweet.

In the meantime, I will keep to the purpose of the  Miss FancyPants blog of running, biking and LOTS of swimming and of course lots of healthy food.  Obviously my beer list will have to wait to August...haha but I may post vicariously through Mike, Brewtal Beer and Broken Goblet (more on that as well).  I don't want to bore you to death with my prego details so if you choose to read I am starting Mini FancyPants (like you didn't know that was coming).

Here's a toast to a good 2013!  To Life and Happiness!

Small Blessings and Being Thankful

Sadness, stress, anger, frustration, pain, guilt - all of these are just some of the emotions we may feel when a family member is very ill.  However, with all the angst, with all this negativity, we hope, pray and seek some sliver of happiness that sheds some light on a bad situation.  This Thanksgiving, Mike and I didn't host the usual LaCouture-Cipolone feast and instead moved things to my in-laws.

If you have been following the blog or are a friend you may know about my father-in-law who has ALS.  To give you perspective, from the time he was diagnosed in November of 2010 with minor symptoms of weakness in his arms to now being in a hospital bed and not being able to walk or eat.  However, he has a wonderful disposition despite this awful disease.  It escalated June 1st when he was rushed to the hospital after a weekend of being able to read a kindle, drinking margaritas and making chili cheese dip.  My husband puts 200% into taking care of him, while being able to work hard at his job, while keeping up with his band, Beyond Dishonor, moving the Brewtal Beer along and spending time together with me (I get exhausted typing it).

The one concern that all of us had was HOW we were going to eat in front of this man who has not been able to have ANY food since June 1st.  BUT, Mike got him in the wheel chair, pushed him out and the decision was made - take some Glenfiddich whiskey and put it on a swab for his mouth - not enough to swallow but to taste and this my friends was the small blessing, the little sliver of happiness that you look for during all this negativity.

Mike and his dad, Carle

Tamara (mike's sister), Mike and Carle and Glen...

For the first time in this house I saw genuine laughter and happiness that has been absent for a while. In Thanksgiving fashion, I am so thankful we were able to spend our Thanksgiving with both our families and that we have such an AWESOME family.

Love this guy!

Our feast

No Thanksgiving is complete without a fried turkey with my dad's beer brine - AWESOME

Fall veggies -I had to fit in another food pic

My parents

Sneaking Turkey as it is cut

My #1 sis!

The little guys - Brenden, Aiden and Kieran

Mom and mother in law!

Belinda and Billy

This doesn't belong - but I can't forget my little bro, Ant (in middle) that we were able to see in Florida!

Source:  High Tail Farms

He lives in Louisiana with his fiance, Kaela where they are farming and sold all of their fine turkey's they raised!  They were even on TV - check them out here www.hightailfarms.com

Prepping for Mooseman!

This weekend really helped put things into perspective and now I am ready to go.  As you know from my past whining  race reports on races as of last year and the prior - I have been nothing short of feet issues, calf cramping.  For the first time, I am happy to report -  I had a great run/finish to a triathlon!!  I haven't said that in a long time and I didn't even care that the swim was a sh#*show and I could have had a better transitions (no surprise there) and probably went a little harder on the bike.

Hopefully, I will have some time tomorrow to put together an actual race report - but in summary....

Great friends, race, food and beer - what more can a girl want!

 It was a nice and surprising feeling when you do a negative split on the run portion of a race, that the last three miles felt even better than the first three and the thought that creeps up is maybe I should have went harder on the bike or went faster on the run. I was being slightly cautious to do more high cadence than more power on the bike, but, you know what I finally feel like it was a great rehearsal for the show on June 3rd. 

Most of you know, I will be doing Mooseman 70.3 on June 3rd.  There is a reason for why I am doing it...

My father-in-law, dad #2, Carle LaCouture was diagnosed with ALS in the fall of 2010.

I have watched him over the past year battle the disease with strength and tenacity and little to no complaint, taking every day one day at a time. It made me reflect on why I do these various races like a HIM in the first place. Instead of choosing a race this year based on a vacation location or whether the course is somewhat flat, I decided to do one based on Carle. I settled on Mooseman 70.3 New Hampshire for two reasons:

1. 1. New Hampshire is where Carle grew up.
2. This one was one of the more challenging race course (and beautiful). With the significant amount of climbing on the bike and run portion after starting out with a chilly swim, I figured this would be the most demanding and mean the most to complete something like this. Because Carle encounters much more difficult challenges battling this disease. So there is no reason, why me, who is healthy, can't undertake something like this.

I am hoping that this race, as small as it may be in the big scheme of things, helps in the awareness and funds to find a cure and treatment for ALS.

 If you wish to donate to something near and dear to our family's heart please click the link below. 

Tri-ing to fight ALS at Mooseman

As of next Friday I will be packing up my stuff, my husband, Carle and Nancy, my sister, Theresa and my parents, Betty and Tony and driving 6ish hours to the state of New Hampshire.  Hopefully I won't bore them to tears while they wait another 7 hours for me to finish...(budgeting hills)

I am so thankful every day for being healthy and to be able to do these events!