Getting our lives back... Finally

movers are here finally

It seems like getting settled took a lot longer than we expected. One thing we learned of this process is that patience pays off at the end.  Last time I wrote was about the entire process and how we were still in the works of getting us in the house. Well, we got news, we are in the house and finally moved in. It took a little long, not only our closing was delayed almost a month from our original plan (3weeks) but our moving truck showed up a week after we had actually taken possession of the house. So there we were in a brand new house, pretty empty since we just had a couple of bags, bins with important stuff, workout clothes and the bikes. Needless to say it looked like we were just camping inside the house.

JayJay digging her new living room

As we moved in our stuff started to trickle in, we got our TVs, refrigerator, new couch, cable, all in that order. Felipe had to go back to TX the week after we "moved in" So it was just me and the pup in the empty house, all we needed was to make s'mores by the fireplace. Instead I rode by the fireplace. While he was in the comfort of a hotel room... He claims he rather be at home on those times, but as funny as it sounds, he pulled the same thing 9 years ago when we moved to Texas... I see a trend here :) but won't hold it against him. Our real stuff showed up on the following weekend, of course in the middle of a snow storm, but those guys worked hard to get unload that truck and get our stuff. In the meantime the fun had just begun for us, UNPACKING!!! Yay!!! We tackled it full force, that Sunday we worked until almost 2 am unpacking, it seemed like we had hardly touched the boxes and we were running out of space, how come we moved so much junk we asked ourselves. We de cluttered when we started the move, apparently not enough. There have been plenty of trips to the dumpster nearby to get rid of stuff. So we finally got in the groove of unpacking over the week and now our house is finally a home... OUR HOME!

enjoying the start of the good weather

exploring around some routes

So while our home is taking shape, we were getting out of it. Yeah, our typical training has been somewhat on hold, kind of doing it as time and life allowed it. Funny thing is that we were totally fine with it. First things first, as much as we were itching to go out and train we couldn't just do it. Finally we feel like our life is gotten back to normal enough to our TrainingPeaks constantly or at least it has been the last couple of weeks. I think since IMAZ our lives have been so hectic with the move, work, driving half way across the country, traveling with work, that simply you have to put some things in the back burner and go through your priorities. So with a half marathon coming up in less than a month (April 12)  we officially open our season, feels weird to say that, I'm pervious years by now we have already done at least one half marathon and would've probably have IM70.3TX (aka Galveston)  on  our sights. This year is a bit different. Our first half marathon will be the Unite Half Marathon (Ruthgers Half).  We had decided to do this one one day a while back, but wi Galveston always around the same time was hard to schedule it, excuses are over now, we only have to drive 2 hours and have free stay at my parents. Also, we convince my sister to do the 8k. We will start all together and she will hopefully wait for us at the finish, but we have been motivating her  and she has been doing the work, I'm super proud of her, and can't wait to see her run with us, hopefully we will get her hooked and we have many runs together.  Definitely stay tuned for updates on how that goes over the next couple of weeks since it is right around the corner.  For now we are trying to explore our new running grounds, found a pool near by and also excited to get to ride outside soon. This weekend hopefully we get to ride outside... the weather is turning the corner for us.

Trainer rides are getting old

On other news... I've gotten a few great news I've been meaning to share with all of you, I'm now ambassador for The Mermaid Club, SweatPink and Base Performance. All 3 are different, but with the same purpose, be badass and share your story while doing it... with the exception of Base that simply helps you by giving you that umph you need do be a real badass with your nutrition. I'll be sharing a little more over the next couple of days, now that life is back to normal, I hope blogging is back to normal. Until then... #livelifemakewaves and remember... #ItsAllAboutThatBase

More on moving.... Getting our lives back

exactly... 

So a few of you knew that we had gotten an opportunity to move half way across the country to New York State. So we had to leave our beloved Lone Star State for the Empire State. We were sad to be living what we considered our home over the last 8 years of our lives. We had made it our home and we loved every day we lived there. We have some great memories and can't complain about our stint in Texas. Fortunately,  life takes you to places and God helps you make those decisions for the best. In our case, our opportunity was both professional and personal, so our decision was a bit easier to make and also we couldn't let it pass. We had put it in our 3-5 year life plan but like a close fiend of ours told us when we gave him the news he said: "Man Plans and God Laughs" which couldn't be any more true and applicable to us.

Entering Nashville

Well, our move day(s) arrived. Y'all know that the home sale and purchase had gone relatively uneventful, so time was gong quick. Before we knew it the movers had arrived to pack us last Tuesday 1/27 and the truck was loaded and on the way on Wednesday 1/28, we would follow after our closing on the house on 1/29. As much as we were sad leaving our first home, we were excited to start our new lives. 8 years ago we took a leap and went to the unknown, we had never been to Texas, much less knew anything about it, other than everything was bigger there. We went with what we had at the time which wasn't much.... it all fit in a small U-Haul trailer :).  and built together what we have now. Amazingly enough, according to the movers, it wasn't a whole lot.... Oh well.. We love everything and it all has a special meaning to us. 

somewhere in PA... sunset 

We left Keller on Thursday, our goal was to drive to the TX-AK border to Texarkana, we had planned to drive Friday and Saturday. So we were still on track. We couldn't have asked for a better drive on all 3 days. Perfect weather, clear skies, got cold when we got to Maryland but nothing too bad. We arrived to NJ to our inlaws home on Saturday at 7 pm after 1590 miles of driving. We were following each other because we were driving both cars. 

Now, our lives are a bit in limbo as our NY home is not finished yet. So we are in between homes. Our move is on the way probably getting unloaded at a warehouse and we will stay at our inlaws and hotels in the meantime. Oh the joys of moving. While all these can probably drive anyone insane, not knowing when things will happen, and you can get mad, desperate, look for answers, right now we are trying to stay "cool" (quite easy in 25 Deg weather), but also trying to look at it in a positive way. There is no point to get angry or frustrated, that will be wasting energy on things that are out of our control. Our #adventure2015 continues

we will not let that happen... :) 

Moving on.. Embracing Change

A couple of months ago, we made the decision to make a big change in our lives. Heck... Can't be all about triathlons, but it might actually apply. Life is a lot like a triathlon after all. So what is that change? Well... We decided to move half way across the country to the East Coast. It is a big change for us, but we don't only see it as a big change but also a big opportunity. For Res it's a huge professional opportunity and for Puli it is an opportunity for change. While he won't be changing jobs, it is still an opportunity.

So,  why change and why embrace it? We had decided a few months ago, back when we did our ChallengeAC race, that we wanted to head back closer to family. Res is a Jerz girl and you know what they say... Can take the girl out of Jerz, but can't take the Jerz out of the girl, so there you have it. Just kidding, her family is still all there so it just makes sense to get back closer to them after almost 13 years of being away from them. So last year the search started, and while we were looking at a more long term plan of abut 3-5 years, we saw an opportunity for her job that we couldn't let go just like that and she got selected for it. We got the news the day before Ironman Arizona so you can imagine the mixed emotions racing and just in general.

We gathered our thoughts back in late November and started planning the move. In a 2 month period, looked at the house market to sell our house, sold our house in TX, planned a house hunting trip, found a dream home in 3 days, started the declutter process of a typical move and here we are 2 weeks before the big day and it seems like we got everything we need. Only if our closing date in NY works out can we call it a perfect move. Other than that it has been extremely smooth and with a few interesting stories along the way.

 Our realtor is our good friend and teammate and she helped us through the process in Texas. We knew the market in Texas was hot but with the holidays right around the corner we didn't have too much hope so we had to put the home as early as possible to give as much cushion on our schedule for it to sell. Only 7 days after it went live we had 2 offers. What is interesting is that one of the offers was a young couple with a little boy that happened to be both triathletes and runners. After learning that, and reading their story because of course, the offer came accompanied with their story (just like a blog entry) we decided to go with them, they felt like they were the perfect fit for our home.

We went off to NY that same week we sold our home and we started looking, maybe 100 houses later (which seemed like 1000) and 3 days of full search mode, we found our dream home, of course it being the first one we had seen the entire weekend. Funny thing is that we looked at the homes to make sure we liked them but for us a few things were important, any running trails nearby, are there any bike routes around, and is there a bike shop nearby. Well... This one has all of the above and on top of that it is only 15 min from the train station for Puli to catch the train into Manhattan. For Res, it is the same drive she does right now so no change on that end.

When things are meant to be... All will fall into place. Who would've thought that 6 months after spending 2 weeks on vacation and racing, would we make these huge decisions in our lives. Which brings us to how we have embraced our change. For us a big drive was to be close to family, but at the same time looking out for opportunities to grow and see what else was out there. We feel like if you get too comfortable in a place it is like progress doesn't happen.  We were comfortable where we were, love our home, have our Tri family from our team, and have a life in Texas which we are really thankful for. Texas provided us that opportunity 8 years ago when we moved from Florida.

So while we will miss Texas, our friends and Tri family, we know our racing will allow us to see them often and we will be able to share with them our new experiences. We will definitely have to get used to seasons... Snow.. More snow.. And some more snow... We are looking forward to it. If change is not important, then why change at all. Change is supposed to be exciting and we are excited for it. We have our east coast racing plan in place and we are really looking forward to exploring the area.  Being close to NYC will be pretty awesome too... And for Puli a dream come true to work in Manhattan.   He is a true city boy.

We will try to document our move...either with pics or little posts here and there on either one of our blogs, but definitely stay tuned!

Until next time... east coast here we come!!!