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!

Life is Short - Celebrate Every Moment

This past Monday, my friend Lauri was taken away from us.  She got sick and went to the hospital on Friday and by Monday she passed away.  Things happen so quickly, it took me a while to process that she was really gone.  I've known Lauri for a long time, she was a few years older, my friend Tom's older sister.  She recently celebrated her 40th birthday.

 

She was not only a good friend but she acted as a sister to all of us, and always there to help someone out.  I still remember the deep conversation we had when I told her about how I met this guy with bleach blonde hair....who ended up being my husband.

She is our first friend with a baby, Shane.  In fact, my favorite story is one that she told a lot and found highly amusing....it was Shane's 2nd or 3rd birthday.  Lauri rented Barney and Baby Bop costumes.  Jeff was Barney and our other friend wasn't there for the Baby Bop costume.  She asked me to wear this wonderful costume (you know the big ass ones that walk around parks that are really heavy).  So I took one for the team, chugged a beer and went out as Baby Bop...the mask kept falling down so I couldn't see and we were with all the children "playing catch".  So I kept missing the ball and one kid just turned around and said "Baby Bop sucks, he can't even catch a ball...."  Good times!  She is the best mom and someone that I can model after someday when I have children.  I am sure she was so proud to see her son graduate from high school this past Spring.

 Lauri laughed a lot and was always ready for a good time especially St. Patty's Day - her favorite holiday. I remember so many SPD years of spending with the Hussey family at their house or at the hall or even our friend, Joey's wedding. 

There were so many good times.  Although I didn't see her as often as we had when we were younger, we could still pick up where we left off.

My friend Tom wrote on facebook this week....
"Thank you for all of the love and kindness we have experienced over the last week. We will push on and share this love with our children. As a family we do bend but we will never break! Please join us to celebrate the life of beautiful person who was taken from us to soon……"

Life is short, and we can learn from Lauri and celebrate each moment we have with laughter and love; however small or large it may be.   We also need to stay strong no matter what life throws at us.  She is in a better place and with her mom.  Lauri will always be remembered as the wonderful, beautiful person she was.