Peck on the Web

23 December 2014

FLW office re-do

So after the successful building of the window bench at Kim's I was inspired to do another project - for those of you who haven't been to FLW - there is no storage space - NONE so our office looked like this - yuck

totes, and junk and just a mess

ugly paneling

blue pegboard and cabinets that weren't big enough..

So it took way longer than I could have ever imagined, but armed with my trusty paintbrush and tools I did a remake and ended up with something I like a little better....

no more cabinet doors and no more blue pegboard

Birthday's & Building

Just after the relay marathon we decided it was time to take a break from training and have some fun. For Jess birthday we surprised her with a trip to St. Louis to visit her mom and Dale. Kim and I didn't tell Jess where we were going and we didn't take the normal route Jess takes to St. Louis so she was tricked almost the whole way there.... we stopped over in Campaign, IL for a night and the next morning went for a spa day before finally ending up at Jeanne's house for the weekend... it was a great weekend of fun, food and friends - many thanks to Jeanne and Dale for having us. My favorite part was when Jess was looking at her phone and missed the giant road sign saying go this way to St Louis :-) Kim and I held our breath the entire time but she never looked up....

Jeanne's awesome theatre room - MSU v UofM Game

A visit with the horses - we even got to see Ace a horse Jess had when we were kids

After the St. Louis weekend it was time for a belated birthday gift for Kim - she wanted a built in bench for seating and storage in her Kitchen so the 3 amigo's

I think this is a real smile not a fake one - so far things were going good...

hmmm.... I think we revisited this a couple times

Day 2, some mistakes and re-do's but looking good!

Approval by Natalie

and Abby

The finished product - Kim will have to get us a picture with the cushion and the painted heat grate but pretty good I think - it even opens for storage... we won't be quitting our day jobs but in all it was a success and no injuries to report!

Happy Birthday Kim & Jess

19 October 2014

26.2 / 5

For no good reason other than we needed a reason to keep running after the Tri,

Kim, Jess, Amy, Linda and I decided to run a marathon as a relay team... so the training continued (somewhat begrudgingly) all the way up to race day... which was quite a day...

The problem with this particular team is that none of us like mornings so we managed to be late to the race (I think this was the first one we were actually late for, typically we sprint up to the start line just in time to hear 3, 2, 1....) today however as Jess and I got out of the car in the ramp we heard 3, 2, 1.... oops... but we prevailed... it was a little cold and we had some unplanned drama, we felt a little like impostors running with the folks who were out there to run the entire marathon (passing them didn't feel quite so good), but we finished in under our goal time and got some new personal best times so it was a success overall...

Marathon spectators are the best, between the signs, the cheering and the laughs you get along the way running somehow seems just a little bit easier... and of course as we already know, its all about the free bananas :-)

Camping, Canning and the end of summer...

Hey Blog readers, its always sit back and wonder where the summer went - its never long enough... here's a few of our favorite summer memories....

The garden was plentiful this year, the vine plants didn't do so well due to insects but everything else was great, tons of canning as usual and a fun day canning with Jess (in the rain) here's one weekend of canning... I have grandma Helen's food mill and put it to good use....

Bill, Merf and I went camping for the weekend and had a great time...

There was canning and freezing with mom including some applesauce with Lexi

FLW front door got an upgrade

Mike, Amy, Jess, Kim & I spent 2 days stomping grapes at the Paw Paw wine festival

It was a great summer

Hope you enjoyed it

B&T

18 August 2014

Swim.Bike.Run

They say good friends won't let you do silly things alone.... here's some living proof of that.

at some point this year Kim, Jess and I decided to do a triathlon... Kim & Jess swear it was my idea and I guess it probably was but I didn't have to twist their arms too hard... everyone keeps asking us why we did it... I guess the answer is because we could... or because it was on the bucket list - or because I hate running and it sounded like more fun than that or maybe because....

Jess says she's just in the race for the free bananas :-) and she also often reminds us that we are lapping everyone on their couch. To prove it, she incessantly showed up to the gym and was there rain or shine every weekend convincing me to get out of bed early to practice... and we all know how much I love mornings... one of my favorite moments of the whole experience, Jess and I were at a park practicing swimming and running - we looked super stupid I'm sure and as we left some lady stopped us and asked us what we were training for - she told us she was "cheering for us" - we laughed all the way home - but felt just slightly better about ourselves....

Kim just says she's doing it because we made her - however I question that when I think back to all the races she convinced us to sign up for... every time I'm running alone and I want to walk I think of what she would say about that.... (I call it summoning my inner Kim)

whatever the case it made for some interesting and fun memories - the thing about a sprint triathlon (what we did) is that each thing on its own isn't so scary - (swim 500meters, bike 12.5 miles, run 5k) those events back to back are a little more frightening... (as are the outfits you have to wear to do this - if you don't believe me check out the pictures below - not pretty)

anyway enough of all that - here's the story in photos: enjoy

It all started with the tinsel toe race in December - a 5k where you had to dress up "in tinsel" and run in probably the worst blizzard of the year... sounds like fun we said.... and so we dressed up like trees and we ran... (well there was some walking)

and... if that wasn't fun enough - there was the 2/2 race (2 miles on feb. 2 at - 2:00) I kept having to ask Kim what time it started (numbers aren't my thing) Lexi and I did that one with Kim, Natalie and Abby - I'm pretty sure Kim had to carry the kids most of the 2 miles - great training!

The training continued - it got a little warmer and quite a few of us ran the color run - a 5k where you get paint thrown on you - doesn't this look like a fun time?

A quick 10k in Holland during Tulip time - because Kim has never been to Tulip Time (I'm not sure she technically has been there yet since after we ran, I was so pumped up that instead of going to the tulip festival... we went and bought my new bike... (it turns out you need a bike for a triathlon) Once the bike was purchased it was time to get serious... shortly after Jess bought a bike and then it was very serious!

we ran and biked and swam when we could to try to get ready for the race - some training days were better than others and there were a few days where this seemed like the worst idea ever (those were the Saturdays where we practiced the race - or anytime we swam). But the famous last words were "I regret that workout" said no one, ever

Then one day Linda invited me for a bike ride around Gull Lake... little did she know how persuasive I can be... and then there was 4 of us signed up... sorry Linda :-)

Finally after 20+ weeks, race day came along and we all I'm sure secretly considered excuses - but in the end we all showed up (a little tired from lack of sleep the night before)

Kim, Traci & Jess pre-race