Well....it has been some time since I last blogged!  It seems like my days don't have much time for anything other than training and playing with the kids!!  Training is going great but takes up a lot of time. Several days of the week consists of training for two different events...so when I am not training, I am spending time with the kids and Russ.  Our training hit a new level this weekend! We did 57 miles on the bike (our bike leg during the race consists of 56 miles!!).  So, now I have done the distance that all of the triathlon legs will be....just not at the same time!!  :o)  My fundraising is going well, but I still have some money to raise to get to my goal!!  So make sure you visit my TNT website to help me get there!!

The kids are doing great!! The have been having a blast at the beach this summer.  Over the last month, they got to play and visit with their cousins from Kentucky---Eliza and Addison!  They had so much fun together!!  Sage actually has (what should be her last) surgery on Wednesday.  After that she should be stone free and we can begin the process of finding out why this has been going on!!  Beckham is great! He is getting bigger and bigger, and his vocabulary is getting bigger each day!  He is all boy though for sure....keeps me on my toes!!

Now for a little prayer request....our pastor/friends, the Peterson's, daughter Elena is really sick right now--possibly Kawaskis disease.....please keep her in your prayers for a quick recovery!!

Until next time....God Bless!!!

Sage and Beckham supporting me at my first sprint tri of the season!! (they were more excited whenever I came by!!)

Cheering at the Battery Soccer Game

4th of July

Summer is here (and along with it, heat and humidity)....the kids are back in their preschool's "summer camp".....and training for Augusta is in full swing!! My weeks seem to be schduled now around my workouts, but I love it!! Since we are training for a bike leg that is 56 miles....our weekend rides have started where our weekend rides ended last year in training for the Nation's Tri.  But ironically, it feels like less!  I love being able to be finished with my bike ride by 9 on Saturday morning and say "Yeah...we did 35 miles this morning."  :o)  And after this Saturday, I will be able to say 45!  My swim training is going well.  It is still the part of my tri that needs the most work!! I am really trying to focus on my arms and making myself a lot more efficient!!  Each time I get in the water, I improve...so maybe one day it will get there!!  ;o) The running portion of my training is good.  The best part of my training is my personal training sessions with Forrest!! I joined Gold's Gym a couple months back so that I could have a place to workout where I could take the kids and they could play (they love the kid's club!!).  In joining, I got 3 free training sessions, they paired me up with Forrest, and now I train with him once a week!  Forrest is awesome!!  Since I only work out with him once a week, he makes sure my workouts are tough and kicks my butt!! (I have to laugh that I pay someone to "torture" me!) Butt it works (pun intended)!!! I am seeing major results and wish that I could be tortured twice a week!  (So...plug for Forrest and Gold's Gym--but if you need a gym, go to Gold's! If you need a trainer that gets you results, ask for Forrest! And tell them Jamie sent you! :o)  )  So, to sum it up, my training is going great...now I just need you to donate and help me meet my fundraising goal!! So, visit http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/Augusta09/jtouchberry and make a donation to a good cause!!!

---A Sage Update:  She had surgery yesterday to put a stent in her right ureter. It went well and she has been in more pain this time than previous surgeries. It has gotten better today and hopefully will be better tomorrow!!  We will have another surgery in a month. Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes!!!!

---A Beckham update.  He is continuing to become a little man....still into everything and still continuing to test the waters!!  He is such a boy!!!

God Bless!!

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted anything....And since then, the kids have finished school for the school year (Sage was an adorable "elephant" in the school's closing program), and I have begun my TNT training!!  My training is off to a slow start since the kids are not in school, but that will change in a couple of weeks.  They will start there summer camp at their preschool which will give me plenty of time to get some good morning swims in!!  I am so excited about TNT this year!! We have a large group of guys and girls training for either the Nation's Tri in DC or the Augusta Ironman 70.3!! It is nice to have them to help keep me motivated!!

On a family note.....we had the most wonderful day today out on the boat!! We borrowed Russ' dad's boat yesterday and parked it at our dock so we could jump in and head to Morris Island after church!  The kids (and us) had a blast!!  Neither wanted to get out of the water or wanted to leave the island!!  I see lots of boating fun for us in the future!!!

It is Official!! I am officially a mentor for the Triathlon training portion of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team in Training (TNT) for the Fall season (just meaning our event is in the Fall and that I have done a TNT event in the past).  Please follow my training adventures here and my fundraising success on my TNT webpage (http://pages.teamintraining.org/sc/Augusta09/jtouchberry). You can also make a secure online (tax deductible) donation via my TNT webpage!! So, please send me words of encouragement often to help keep me motivated and make your donation today!!

So, for a quick Sage update......She had her surgery last Monday to blast the kidney stone in her left kidney and it was a success!!  The stone was blasted into many tiny sand-like dust particles!!  The downfall is that we found out that the stones consisted of calcium oxide--which means it should have shown up on x-ray, but didn't!  So, now we are going to wait two weeks, have a few more images of done of her kidneys (because now there might be one in her right kidney---yay...) to see if there is a stone in the right and if all the "sand" has been flushed from the left.  Once all is clear in both kidneys, then we can look at having a metabolic work-up down to discover why this might have happened!!  So, while this ordeal isn't over, at least we have hit an easier path to stroll down!!  But as I always mention, you wouldn't know anything has been going on with Sage.  She is always my happy, go lucky little girl---oh! and talking more and more each day!  My favorite conversation lately:

Sage: I'm a rockstar!
Me: Oh! And why is that?
Sage: Because I am Sage!

And I cannot argue with that now can I?  :o)

Beckham is doing great these days, too.  He is such a little man! He is into everything and wants to experience everything!  It is not enough to say "no Beckham, the grill is hot" and to try and keep him away.  He must see for himself....I don't think he will be doing that anytime soon (which by the way--he didn't really hurt himself doing it.....just enough to scare him).  He is also getting real frustrated these days because his vocabulary isn't where he wants it to be.  He tries so hard to communicate, gets frustrated, and hits Sage...she cries....he cries....and then they hug.  At least I know they love each other!!! ;o)

God bless!

Well....it has been another interesting week!! Sage's fever spiked again, sending us back to the doctors.  A test determined that she had a urinary tract infection---meaning more bacteria in the kidney and unfortunately, it was a very bad bacteria.  Being the bad bacteria it was, we had to go back to the hospital until they could figure out what, if any, oral antibiotics it was sensitive to.  Luckily, they discovered that it was sensitive to an oral antibiotic so we get to go home instead of having to stay in the hospital until her next surgery getting IV antibiotics!! Like I have said before, Sage is such a trooper!! She is always upbeat and she really doesn't show that she isn't feeling well unless she has a fever greater than 103.  I am also so proud of how she handle all the poking and prodding they had to do!!  I also am very pleased with all the nursing staff on 8D!! They have done fantastic job and made Sage feel very comfortable!! Thanks ladies!!  And thank you to all who have continued to keep Sage in your prayers. I really appreciate it and all the prayers help!!

I think Beckham has enjoyed this time because he has gotten to spend one on one time with YaYa and Jimmy at the beach. YaYa has sent many videos and pictures of them having a good time....Although I cannot wait to see him in person this afternoon!! U

So we had a great Easter weekend!! Sage and Beckham had a lot of fun finding eggs out at the farm with the Touchberrys on Saturday, had fun with their friends at church on Sunday, and enjoyed the afternoon at the beach with Jimmy and YaYa!! Enjoy the video of Sage dancing in the car on the way to the farm.....it will make you smile!!

Yesterday, Sage went in for her kidney stone removal surgery; however, it didn't go exactly like we hoped.  Her ureter was too small (as imagined with a small child), and the doctors were just able to put a stent in to help dialate the ureter. We will try to remove the stones in a month....so we wait.  But the good news is that she was able to have her "special' bag removed!!!

Well, it has been a little while since I last blogged about our life happenings....which is good I guess. That means it is closer to being back to "normal" ....thank goodness!! This week has been spring break for the kids, so we have been trying to fill it with fun things to do. Today we went Strawberry picking at the Ambrose Farm!! They have tons of fresh strawberries and the rows were just wide enough that I could pull the kids behind me in the wagon. I almost picked a whole bucket before the natives got restless and were ready to get out and explore.  Sage helped me finish picking enough strawberries to fill the bucket up while Beckham just enjoyed picking up overly ripe strawberries off the ground (which were mostly already smushed from other people's shoes) and throwing them.  Sage and I were lucky enough to miss being target practice!!! :o) ...I wish I had remembered to grad my camera--next time.....  Once we filled up the basket, we headed back down the row to pay for our strawberries....we got our bucket for less than $10 and we had over five pounds of strawberries!!! I am going to go back next week when the kids are back in school so I can get tons to freeze so we can eat fresh strawberries year round!!!  Before we left the farm, the kids got to swing on the old tire swing...which they loved. I have a feeling I will take them back for more strawberry picking and keep up to date with the other fresh produce I might be able to pick myself!!  I might even try the Boone Hall Strawberries to make sure I get enough!!!  :o)

Oh....we raised over $6700 for Parkinson's Research and Education with the Golf Tournament......thanks to all who made this a success & see you next year for an even better year!!!

Okay.....we have made it home and survived almost two weeks!!  We are all adjusting to life and moving with Sage's "special bag."  It hasn't slowed here down one bit....if anything she has become a little more adventurous!!  (Maybe she is just feeling so much better because she doesn't have a horrible kidney infection!!!)   :o)  She recently has conquered the Chick-fil-A play area, and it is like pulling teeth (or in Sage's case band-aids) to get her to leave she has so much fun!!!

It is nice to be a family again and not have one kid off with the grandparents while taking care of the other!  Speaking of our little man, Beckham is a wild man!!!  When people say boys are different than girls.....WOW!!  I am super glad that he is running around, since I don't have to do it, but he is everywhere quickly!! He wants to try everything he sees older kids doing....especially older boys! I truly enjoy watching him play and discover new things! 

And the best part of my day is when the two of them start playing together.  I love all or sudden hearing one of them start laughing and then the other.  Just today, Sage was sitting in time out (she wasn't playing so nice with Beckham moments earlier) when Beckham walked towards her. (Downstairs time out chair is a chair in the dining room area beside one of the columns.)  He stands behind the column and slowly peeks his head around.  Just as Sage see this he pops his head back behind the column, and then slowly looks back around.  This time Sage bursts out laughing, and with her laughter comes Beckham's!!  Music to my ears!  This continues for a few minutes.  These are the moments that make the times you want to pull your hair out well worth it (not that I ever have those moments....I just imagine this is what makes those times better for others :o)).

So things are good in the Touchberry household.  The week is winding down and we are getting ready for the First Annual Coach Tim Touchberry Putting for Parkinson's Golf Tournament, Dinner, and Auction.  If you would like to attend, come on out to Miler Country Club....$35 per person!  We have some great items for the auction.....including footballs signed by the Alabama, Florida, and all in state Football coaches....there is also gift baskets from Stella Nova and the Pink Crocodile and many more items!!! See you there!!!

Yay!!!!! We are heading home today.  The doctors gave us a thumbs up, and we are just waiting on the paperwork.  We will let the bacteria "go bye-bye" over the next couple of weeks and then take care of the stones!!  But I guess all the playing in the Atrium and pretending to be a doctor has worn Sage out, because she first needs a nap before we leave!!