International Adoption Book

Monday, September 15, 2008

Murderous Intent

So, how do you know if someone is trying to kill you? Well, I think I just found out...

Matt and I recently bought bikes for ourselves and then purchased attachments that turn our single-seater bikes into two-seater bikes. We purchased these items with the intent of biking our way around post. Though the attachments allow our kids to peddal, they don't really assist us in moving. Therefore, Matt and I are each towing our kids' 50-ish pounds plus the 10-ish pounds of the attachments for a total of 60-ish extra pounds.

I haven't ridden a bike in more than 13 years. The last time I got on a bike I had nearly committed unintentional suicide: The previous night I had gone out and drank a little heavily and volunteered to go mountain biking with several of Matt's friends. We arrived home at nearly 3:00 am. The guys called me around 5:30am to remind me of what my mouth said. Oh how I wish I had forgotten that conversation of the night before because that morning, after finally gaining my balance, I ran into two trees. Luckily the bike remained uninjurred, but my pride, my bottom and my head (from hitting the trees) were bruised.

So, now that we have these two awesome bikes, I take a few quick practice trips around the block. I do very well and it seemed so easy that I told Matt I could handle taking one of the kids down to the local school and back. The distance, according to Matt, was only 1/2 mile in each direction. I figured I could handle that. The first day, though, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. I was enduring muscle failure before we were 3/4 of the way through the trip. By the time we arrived at our front yard my heart was beating so fast that I thought it was going to burst right out of my chest. I was lightheaded from the experience and truly could not get up from where I fell: on my front lawn!

Yesterday, we took the kids further. Thankfully, we have been riding the same school route about twice a week for the past three weeks and I was prepared for the longer journey. We rode to the park that lay a bit further in the distance and stopped for about an hour (thankfully) to allow the kids to play before heading home.

This is how I know my dearly beloved husband has been trying to kill me: After our afternoon ride Matt drove our van along the route to give us a good estimate of our total distances. He learned that in reality the school was 3/4 of a mile EACH direction. So, all this time I had been riding 1-1/2 miles each trip (the park was 2 miles)... I know he knew it and was only trying to get me to exercise more! The idea of "work" is enough to give anyone a heart attack... I'm sure he did it on purpose!!! lol!!!

Needless to say, Matt was extremely proud of me for my newfound abilities!!! :)

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