Hmmm?

Snappy

2011-05-08T19:49:00.002-06:00

I often joke (joke?) with Chris that in order for him to pick up a new, expensive, time-consuming hobby, he has to drop one.

Well, the other day, as I broke out the work shorts for the first time this year and looked down at the saggy shells that used to be awesome biking legs, I realized I have been doing exactly that. And, in the process, made myself... for lack of a better word... unsettled.

Mommyhood is indeed an expensive and incredibly time-consuming endeavor (not really a hobby, is it?). But one I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. My life is really, truly, and utterly cheesily complete with JJ in it.

Having said that, I went into pregnancy in the best shape of my life. I could bike pretty much any desirable distance without feeling worthless the next day, could hike at 14,000 ft regularly, and I was even climbing at the gym and making it up a few 5.10- routes. I stayed fairly active during pregnancy, vowing not to be that person who gets pregnant and completely loses my fitness and active nature.

Well, as I have now come to realize and accept... there's nothing like a long and difficult labor and delivery to make you not really want to suffer for a while. Even if it is the "fun" kind of suffering.

Then, life takes over and being a full-time working momma and going to grad school and wanting to see my amazing son every spare moment I have seems to shove that whole "take care of me" part of life to the very back corner of the very back room of the House of Priorities in my mind.

I've ridden now and then. I even got into a pretty good groove of riding the trainer after JJ went to bed this winter... for a few weeks. But somehow something else seems to always "come up" -- keeping me from riding and, well, blogging. In all honesty, usually it's not actually anything, just something I find to use as an excuse to myself to justify my laziness.

But as I looked at my completely floppy leg muscles in my shorts the other day, I realized that I have not only managed to neglect myself physically over the last 8 1/2 months, I have also lost that personal snap.

So today, as part of Chris's Mother's Day extravaganza, he took the Sleep Ninja from me (he can fight sleep with the best of them when he wants to), put my clipless pedals back on my singlespeed, and sent me out the door for a ride into the beautiful evening.

It was exactly what I needed.

The silence out in the hills, away from town, was actually deafening. I realized just how long it has really been since I've been out, on my own, away from noise and distractions and just listened.

So... the ultimate point of this blog...

I will start riding my bike again on night's when Chris is around after JJ goes to bed.

I will get those leg muscles back.

I will bring a little more snap back to my life by taking care of myself and letting myself not only be a kickass wife, mom, teacher, and student, but also a kickass ME.

So there.

Now it's in writing.

That means I HAVE to do it, right?

Well, hello there poor neglected blog!

2011-02-21T20:18:00.002-07:00

Haha, so much for that New Year's resolution to blog more, eh?

It has been two months since I made that resolution.

Yeah.

I could make all sorts of excuses, but frankly, there's not much to blog about these days that's not baby related, and I try to keep that to JJ's blog.

I do miss riding my bike. Rhonda the SS is all spiffed up and ready for a ride, but weather, time, and motivation have kept her corralled in the stable for far too long. She was all set to ride up in Leadville for the first snow race, but I70 traffic and bad driving conditions had us turned around before the tunnel and the ponies loaded back into the garage a few hours later.

And there they have sat.

Sad.

Luckily, Colorado weather has flipped from arctic to downright spring-like lately and I hope to squeeze in a wee ride in the very near future. Mr. Plesko's exercise focus may have shifted from biking to climbing this year, but I still have some sparks left to ignite with those cranks. Climbing, for me, is still merely good cross-training.

Also, we seem to be getting this whole Family Of Four thing down and managed to get out with both JJ and Turbo this weekend which felt... well... natural. We hope to continue to build on the momentum and get out for some weekends away from home very soon, thus presenting me with better blogging material than "I went to work, I came home to the best baby and husband in the world, I did homework, I went to sleep. Rinse. Repeat."

The clouds are lifting, baby.

New Year's Resolution

2010-12-19T12:29:00.002-07:00

I need to get back to blogging.

I actually miss throwing random thoughts and happenings out into the interwebs.

I am back to work and have plenty of good Kindergarten stories built up waiting to come out...

Motherhood is an adventure that brings with it good stories, pictures, and deep thoughts...

I'm adjusting to life as a mom, wife, teacher, and student who still has a strong desire to ride my bikes, climb some mountains, and find some *me* again -- but have no time or energy to do so.

The blog needs an overhaul and hopefully over this lovely Christmas break I will get around to breathing new life into it as well as into myself.

Anyone actually still read this? I could use some encouragement to get me going...

12 weeks of bliss

2010-11-19T18:09:00.003-07:00

Well, now that it's Friday evening, my maternity leave is officially over.

I can't believe how fast this 12 weeks has flown by and that I am already facing the reality of going back to work on Monday.

Luckily for me, JJ had such fantastic timing showing up, that I only have two days of work next week before a five day Thanksgiving weekend, and then only 15 more work days after that until a two week break for Christmas.

With those breaks in mind, I honestly am not dreading going back to work.

I am going to miss JJ like crazy during the day, but on the other hand, I'm ready to resume a bit of a life outside of the house. I really do enjoy teaching, and while going back after the kids have had a sub for three months is going to be an incredible challenge, I'm always up for a good challenge!

Plus, I am VERY ready to start getting paid again! My school district's maternity leave is so awful that I'm surprised it's even legal these days, and I'm ready to have all of that drama and hassle behind me.

I am currently working on a 3-month blog for baby JJ catching up on all of the fantastic skills he has learned over his short life so far, but for now, here's a cute picture...

And, an updated monkey picture!

Look who grew!!

2010-10-11T13:04:00.003-06:00

1 week

6 weeks

Weightless

2010-10-08T14:24:00.002-06:00

Look what I did today!!
It took me the time it takes to go to Starbucks for me to get back out on the bike after getting the "let pain be your guide for exercising" schpeel from the doctor at my six week checkup.

Chris got my bike all set, took Baby J, and coaxed me out the door.

I was nervous to get back out on the bike. Afterall, just the thought of sitting on a bike seat a few weeks ago would make me dry heave.

But by the time I got down the street, the perma-grin crept onto my face.

I had only intended to ride easy paths around the neighborhood, but soon found myself pedaling up the rocky hill around the dog park, making people stare as I happily sang along to my ipod.

There is only one word to describe how the ride felt:

Weightless.

The last time I rode my bike I was about 30 pounds heavier and worried about sending myself into preterm labor. The big belly made me pedal with my knees out to the sides.

Despite being off the bike for a little more than two months, being back to "Original Marni" (as Chris likes to call me) made me feel fantastic.

Also, despite being *almost* back fighting weight, I am generally carrying around my little 12 pound Stay Puff Marshmallow Baby, holding him, feeding him, or tending to him when he fusses. Being back out on the bike, away from that physical and mental weight, made everything feel a little easier.

I love my little JJ and being away from him for a little Me-Time made me come back and love him even more.

I can't wait until he can come ride with me in the trailer, but until then, I'll take the weightlessness whenever I can squeeze it in!

One Year

2010-09-30T18:57:00.005-06:00

One year ago from this last Tuesday, was the day that Chris showed up at my school door after work and told me we were miscarrying our first pregnancy.

That day, and the following few days, were the hardest of my life.

When I look back, I can very clearly remember each horrible moment of those first few days.

I don't wish that feeling on anyone, and yet I realize it is sadly quite common.

Oddly enough, the days leading up to this anniversary were harder than the anniversary itself. I could remember how excited we were to find out we were really pregnant sitting in the REI Starbucks...going to the Rockies/Cardinals game wanting to eat nothing but jalapeno nachos...being giddy with excitement at our little secret...

On Tuesday, I honestly didn't even notice the date pass. Instead I was in St. Louis, knocked to the ground with a fever, flu symptoms, and an infection from breast feeding. I spent most of the day rotating between sleeping, whining, feeding JJ, and trying to coordinate care with our health care in a state that doesn't have the plan. We spent the evening in Urgent Care.

It was only yesterday on the 14 hour drive home through Missouri and Kansas did I actually have time to figure out what the date was. Looking back, I've never been happier to have a raging body infection because it means that I, in fact, have a baby.

This time last year was filled with discussions between Chris and I about whether we wanted to keep going through all of the crazy fertility treatments to try to get pregnant. We were emotionally warn down after three years of trying and not sure we wanted to keep going through with it -- at least for a while.

Luckily we decided to keep trying until the end of the year, then we'd stop for a while.

The last try produced my most wonderful gift...
And I couldn't possibly love him more.

As I watch him sleep next to me tonight, I am grateful for every moment that led up to getting him, no matter how hard some of those moments were.

Ah, the difference one year can make... check out those smiles!

A Whole New World

2010-09-09T18:17:00.005-06:00

In about an hour, my little guy will officially be two weeks old.

It is nearly impossible to believe.

In some ways, the last two weeks have flown by... in others, time has nearly stood still.

In watching my handsome boy grow and change, two weeks has passed by in the blink of an eye. He has gone from weighing 8 pounds at birth, down to 7 pounds 2 ounces a couple days after coming home, to topping the scales at 8 pounds 9 ounces at his appointment today! Everyday, he is more and more alert and we get to watch him scan the new world with his eyes and smile in his sleep. He already has both mommy and daddy wrapped around his adorable little fingers and we literally spend hours each day just staring at him. In two weeks, we have taken hundreds of pictures, and Chris has been outstanding at keeping his blog updated with the latest for our family and friends who aren't lucky enough to stare at him on a regular basis. Here are some of my favorites so far:

Baby shark!!

Bath time happiness!

Big boy in his first pair of pants!

Chillin' in the bed while Mommy and Daddy stare.

We never were worried about Turbo's reaction to a baby, but he's been amazing. He's curious, but already loves JJ!

Who is that cute boy?

In healing and recovering from a rough labor, two weeks has seemingly stood still. While I feel better everyday, my body is quick to remind me that I am, in fact, still only two weeks out from my hardest physical challenge. Even everyday activities seem to come back and bite me the next day. Luckily I have an absolutely amazing husband who has been patient and quick to take good care of me. I'm definitely no peach 24/7, but he is always there with a hug and understanding smile. He has been a fabulous dad, husband, and personal chef over the last two weeks. Minus one night where I was feeling particularly grateful and energetic and did it for him, he has gotten up and changed every dirty diaper in the middle of the night -- making my life a lot easier!

This was my "life doesn't get any better than this" picture. Delicious omelet, donut, and cute baby. Chris takes very good care of me!

We managed to get out for a walk as a family, then I completed my first solo baby/dog walk the other day. Both baby and dog loved getting out!

Overall, life is different and new, but good and amazing.

THE story (verrrrrrrrrry long)

2010-09-02T09:25:00.005-06:00

I am writing this blog for anyone who is curious, but mostly so I have it down in writing before I forget all of the great details surrounding JJ's birth. It's amazing how quickly you manage to forget the details surrounding such an enormous event...

One week ago yesterday, Chris and I welcomed the most amazing new little person into our lives. John James Plesko was born on August 26, 2010 (nine days early) weighing in at a hefty 8 lbs and even more surprisingly, a whopping 22 inches long! I have a hard time pinpointing a number of hours that I was in "labor", which is kind of a bummer because numbers are always fun! Let's just say, six days of fairly regular contractions led up to the actual event...

The kids returned to school on Friday the 20th. Being nine months pregnant and working with 25 brand new Kindergarteners was rough. Friday was only a half day for students, with the other half as testing, and it was still excruciatingly exhausting. Chris was up climbing the Diamond on Longs Peak that day, so I was under strict orders not to go into labor, since he'd be without cell reception or any good contact for nearly 24 hours. Even still, the consistent contractions started on Friday (I have to chalk it up to the stress), and honestly if he would've been around, I would've maybe considered visiting the doctor. Luckily for both of us, after work they calmed down a bit, and I went to see a movie with Heather and relaxing helped a lot.

Over the weekend, I continued to have contractions, although they had slowed to around 10-15 minutes each, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have had Braxton Hicks ("practice") contractions since 26 weeks, and these were certainly different. Chris and I mostly sat around all weekend, trying to relax and not worry too much about the contractions or how soon little JJ might be making his appearance. It seemed that every time they would speed up and become more regular and we would start to consider heading to the hospital, they'd slow down again and we'd be left a little disappointed on the couch.

Starting on Monday, the kids were with me full day. Chris came with me to work "just in case", and his help and presence made the day actually go okay. Tuesday, I convinced him to stay home and relax -- after all he was still pretty tired from his epic day on Longs, and I told him I needed him to be on full alert whenever things started to move along. Both Monday and Tuesday I came home from work with enormously swollen ankles and exhausted beyond belief. When Wednesday rolled around, I really was starting to feel miserable. I had a girl throw a fit when her mom left which required me to try to wrangle her to keep her from running out either door. The stress of the situation left me with some crazy contractions for a few hours, but I managed to keep chugging through the day. Walking back up from dropping the kids at lunch, I had an inner-dialogue with Mr. JJ telling him that he better come soon, because Mommy was about to give up. I was so tired, swollen, and uncomfortable that I couldn't imagine working another week and a half until my maternity leave was set to kick in. I would learn later that most of the teachers that saw me that day could tell that I was about ready to go. Something must've seemed *off* which I guess I could tell on some level.

Wednesday evening I got home from work to Chris just waking up from a nap (Chris NEVER takes naps...) and plopped onto the couch as usual with my feet up. Contractions kept coming and were anywhere from 5-10 minutes apart all evening long. Chris and I were both convinced they'd die off as usual, so we didn't really get our hopes up too much that anything would be happening. As the evening wore on, the contractions continued and actually managed to get more painful. While not as painful as they would eventually get, they did stop me in my tracks and Chris could always tell when one was coming just by my sudden shift in personality.

We went to bed early, knowing that if I were to survive the next day at work, I needed to relax as much as possible. We watched some Office episodes on the laptop and the contractions kept coming and coming. Around midnight, we decided to go for a walk. Neither one of us had any hope of sleeping, there was a big bright just-past-full moon out, the weather was perfect, and we wanted to see if we could get things moving along. This walk was one of the best we've ever taken. The world was so peaceful outside at midnight and the moon lit up the dirt path enough that no headlamps were necessary. We would have to stop about every three to five minutes to get through a contraction, which Turbo loved because it gave him extra exploring time. It has never taken us that long to walk the 2.5 mile loop before!

We were pretty encouraged that the contractions had not only not gone away, but they had increased in frequency and painfulness. Still, we knew that it was probably still too soon to go to the hospital, since they have always slowed down. We got into bed and both slept pretty fitfully for a few hours before finally getting up at 6:00. The question of whether to go to work or not wasn't even there, we both knew that this was when we would head to the hospital. I emailed work and told them I wouldn't be in (it just so happened that my long term sub was scheduled to visit that day and observe anyway, so that worked out perfectly with no stress). We got in the shower and I had my "bloody show" which kinda freaked both Chris and I out. We've been praying this whole pregnancy for NO BLOOD and now finally we saw some and could start to get excited. Chris offered to make breakfast, but I told him we should just get the rest of the stuff in the car (he'd packed almost everything into the car when we got back from our midnight walk) and hit up the starbucks on the way to the hospital.
When we went into starbucks, I had another painful contraction and did my best to hide it from everyone else in line. Chris and I both laughed afterwords, since labor contractions in line at starbucks are, well, pretty funny. I ordered a water and a huge cinnamon roll (YUM!!!!!!), knowing that our starbucks usually doesn't carry cinnamon rolls and if I went into labor and puked it all up, I didn't want to ruin a food that I usually eat. I had a few more contractions while we were sitting there, and Chris and I tried to make small talk to calm our nerves. Eventually we got back out into the car and drove the last five minutes to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital, they put us in a room in labor and delivery and they hooked me up to the contraction monitor and baby heartrate monitor. Everything looked fine, and when she checked to see my progress, I was still only 1 cm dialted, although more thinned out. I had been at 1 cm since our last dr appointment a week and a half prior. She told us to go walk the halls for an hour and come back and she'd check me again. I was really frustrated walking the halls -- not only had I essentially been up since Wednesday morning, had a craptastic day at work, a night full of painful contractions, but now I was finding out I wasn't even making any good progress through all of that. Chris had to deal with a very cranky Marni for that hour, I didn't even want to talk or hold his hand or listen to his encouraging words. Especially as the contractions started to slow down, I got more and more frustrated.

Chris, knowing me better than anyone ever could, suggested that since it was Thursday, if we got sent home, at least we'd have a nice day together and then we could get some tasty Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner (Thursday night is 50 cent boneless night). That perked me up a little, knowing that at least I'd be getting some yummy wings for dinner. We went back to the room and she hooked me back up to the monitors and checked me again. "Still 1 cm" was all she said. I could've sobbed right there, except I always have to put on some sort of "brave" face in front of strangers for whatever reason. She was clearly going to be sending us home, since no progress was made and the contraction monitor wasn't really picking anything up. I knew I was contracting, but the monitor wasn't picking them up, so I of course started to doubt myself that I was making it all up in my head. Chris could tell, however, that the contractions were coming a lot more frequently than the monitor let on, so when the nurse returned, he told her it wasn't working and she needed to figure it out. She seemed a little annoyed that we wanted her to fix the monitor when we were going to be going home, but she humored us and left to get some blood results back (my blood pressure was a little high when we went in so they wanted to check out my blood).

After the nurse fixed the monitor and left the room, we could see the contractions on the monitor finally. Suddenly I got one really really painful contraction and my water exploded everywhere. I told Chris "uhhh, honey, I'm pretty sure my water just broke" and he paged the nurse who came back, still looking doubtful. When she looked down, she said "oh yeah, looks like you're not going home, you're staying here to have a baby!" I think Chris and I were both a little shocked after thinking we'd be heading home, but we were also excited to be staying. I honestly thought for a second "oh wait, this means I won't get wings tonight" -- haha.

They kept me on the monitors for just a few more minutes, then said I was free to move around and use any of the birth balls, birthing tubs, chairs, or anything to help me through the process. We went into labor thinking we'd try to do it naturally, but still left the epidural option open in case something didn't really go as planned. As I got out of bed, my water continued to gush everywhere, and I of course felt horrible that someone else would be cleaning that mess up. As they cleaned up my bed, they noticed meconium in my water (baby pooped in the womb and was breathing it in) so they were clearly concerned. I continued to gush and gush everywhere and the nurses all commented on how I had A LOT of fluid.

I tried the birthing ball, but that was not helping. I noticed I was having a lot of back labor pains, so we tried to the tricks we had learned in our birthing class to help that. I found one semi-decent position to stand in, but quickly realized that wasn't going to work either. Rather than the typical contractions that would be about 3-5 minutes apart lasting for a minute, mine were lasting 1.5 minutes and only 2 minutes apart, meaning I was getting about thirty seconds of "rest" in between. Essentially they were stacked right on top of each other and extremely painful both in my back and in the front (I'm now chalking that up to his 22 inch height, although dr's and nurses debated the rest of the labor what position he was in). I told Chris there wasn't any chance I could handle the constant pain, and he was supportive. I still tried to fight it and wanted to go without the epidural, but when a nurse came in and said "well, because of the meconium, we're going to need to put you under constant monitoring in the bed". At that point, I said "f___ it" (maybe in my head, maybe out loud?) and we decided to see how far along I was before ordering the epidural. We knew that it if it was given too soon, it could slow down labor and lead to all sorts of other interventions.

So, about a half hour after my water broke (and broke, and broke, and broke), the nurse checked me and I was already 4 cm dialated! We ordred the epidural and waiting for him to come in seemed to take forever. He was in another room and we were next on the list, but I thought I was going to pass out from the pain waiting for him (especially now that I was strapped to be bed with monitors in a pretty uncomfortable position). Throughout this, Chris was very encouraging and helpful in keeping me calm and focused. When the anesthesiologist came in to give the epidural, I was ready to be done. Thank goodness for that guy!

He got the epidural in and told me that slowly, one by one, the contractions should become less painful. We waited a few contractions and it was slowly taking the edge off of them enough that they could check me again. After the epidural, and about an hour after my water broke, I was already 8 cm dilated! No wonder those contractions hurt like heck, I was speeding through labor like a freight train. In the middle of all of this, there had been a shift change and we got a nurse who I liked better than the first who thought we were crazy. When she decided I was already up to 9 cm a little while later, she explained to us that the two doctors on call were both performing emergency c-sections, but that they could call someone over in no time if we needed it (which I thought was funny, because I really had no choice in how long or short this was going to last).

By now, the epidural had taken full effect, and Chris and I were able to enjoy the labor for a little while. Chris called our family, friends, and work to let them know what was going on. He would feed me ice chips, got me a grape popsicle, and even had time to eat a few crackers himself. I was exhausted from the last 29 hours, but had somehow convinced myself in my head that if I let myself fall asleep, I would die. I'm not sure if that was the epidural talking, or a bit of anxiety over the situation, but every time my eyes would close, I would force them open to stay awake. Very bizarre.When I got the epidural, life became a lot easier. I could still definitely feel the contractions for a while, but after upping my dosage now and then, I finally got the "numb" feeling everyone talks about. When I reached a 9 a little while later, we expected to get a baby soon! Unfortunately, my body stalled at a 9 with a tiny lip of cervix left for about five hours. I was grateful for the epidural at this point and stopped feeling guilty about getting it. Being strapped to a bed at 9 cm for five hours being monitored would've been awful. JJ wasn't handling the contractions well (his heartbeat was dropping a little lower than the nurses liked during and shortly after a contraction), so they put me in various positions on the bed to find him a happy spot. One inch to the left this way, this arm slightly that way, and on and on and on for five hours. Honestly, this was all okay, but wherever they'd get me, that JJ supposedly liked, was usually the least comfortable for me. My tailbone was killing me despite the medicine and trying to stay still in one particular position or another wasn't helping at all.
Finally, around 5 pm, they called me fully dialated (after starting pitocin to get my body to progress)), and I got to start pushing. This was exhausting. I had to dig deep and use any of what I've learned in biking and hiking to get me through it. Over the last few years I have learned that despite my body telling me I'm exhausted and done, there is always something left in reserves to get me through. I have watched Chris battle through some exhausting adventures, and I knew that tiredness could not be what stopped me.

As Chris shoved my knees to my face, at least I was able to impress the doctors with my mad flexibility skillz. Chris was doing a fantastic job of keeping track of how I was doing, adjusting his rate of counting or depth of leg shoving to leave me feeling motivated and not discouraged. I tried to focus on his voice and try my best, although I surely had doubts that he and the nurses were trying to lie to me by telling me I'd made progress. At some point the doctor had come in to discuss what he could foresee happening (episiotomy, and using a vacuum to help JJ along). He said it in such a way that I took it personally to mean that I wasn't doing a good enough job and wouldn't be able to do it on my own. It felt like I had made it through a long bike race, only to get about a mile from the finish and need someone to tow me the rest of the way. I nearly broke down and cried, and when he left the room, the nurse asked what was wrong and I managed to tell her that now I felt like I wasn't doing anything well. She and Chris helped me feel better, and rather than getting frustrated I tried to use it as motivation. In the end, I needed the episiotomy, but am very pleased to say that I never needed the vacuum.

While I didn't realize this at the time, but now realize as I write this, I think the epidural made me extremely paranoid. When the nurse tried to tell me that she could see his head and that it was going to be soon, I asked her if by "soon", she meant another hour. She laughed and said "definitely no". I only believed the head was actually coming, when Chris said "I can see his head!" and he sounded like he was getting choked up. This gave me any last motivation I needed to get JJ out into the world.

Despite the epidural (which I'm not sure hadn't gotten turned down in the process of pushing), getting a baby out of me was extremely painful and exhausting. However, there is nothing in this world like accomplishing that. When he started to come out, they told me to stop pushing for a second. Later I learned this was because the doctor needed to unwind the cord from around my sweety's neck. He came fully out and they put him on my stomach for a very brief moment. Chris quickly cut the cord and before I could even open my eyes and focus on his little body, they whisked him away to the warmer in the room. I told Chris to go over with him.

All I noticed was that he wasn't crying.

I gave him a few seconds before I freaked out.

When he still hadn't cried after what seemed like an eternity, I looked over at the warmer and saw the nurses pumping him full of oxygen.

Then I freaked out.

I kept yelling over to Chris and the nurses about whether he was okay or not. Chris said "he's moving", but I still hadn't heard him cry. In the end, this time was only a minute and a half, but looking back on how it felt, it took forever.

What I didn't like about the doctor over the last few months of my pregnancy and during the labor, ended up being exactly what I liked about him in this minute and a half. We have never been big fans of how slowly he explains every minute detail of everything, but in my freaking out about my un-crying baby, he was able to calm me down and explain what was going on. His one minute apgar score (out of 10) was 1. Poor little guy :(
When they got him breathing and moving and happy, they brought him back to me and I got to finally to meet my little man. He was (and is) absolutely perfect.

I asked the nurse if I could finally drink any water, and she was happy to inform me that not only could I drink water, my ice chips had melted into the perfect cold watery goodness. Drinking that was sooooooooo nice!
Over the next hour or so, Chris and I got to bond with our little boy, try to nurse, and get cleaned up. Soon my wonderful family started trickling in. JJ was visited by his Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Colleen, Uncle Scott, Uncle Jim, Aunt Jenn, and finally his cousins Kylie and Trevor. Aunt Betsy came to visit the next day. My dad went and got Chris and I some subway sandwiches, and we enjoyed eating for the first time since starbucks early that morning.
The only other noteworthy happening of the evening was the nurse taking me to clean up in the bathroom and while she was talking to me, I interrupted asking her if it was normal that I couldn't hear her voice. I heard her talking, then it started to get really funky, and then no hearing at all. I noticed her call in Chris and they dragged me over to the wheelchair to bring me back from starting to black out. That was a bizarre experience.

The first night in the hospital went really well. Chris and I were exhausted and so was little JJ. We got some decent stretches of sleep and he ate like a champ. Chris and I couldn't wipe the smiles off our faces that night, and they still haven't gone away.
After several years of trying to get pregnant, fertility treatments, and a miscarriage, it was all worth the wait. I am desperately in love with my little boy and falling more and more in love with my husband every day.
Life is good.

The beginning of the end

2010-08-22T19:02:00.008-06:00

After waiting and waiting for this pregnancy for years through all of the ups and downs, we are now under two weeks away from d-day.

Returning to work the last week and a half has been a little brutal, but teaching the 25 Kindergarteners for the first time on Friday, was especially hard. I was lucky enough to go unscathed, for the second year in a row, without major criers or fit-throwers. Pretty amazing. Just the sheer energy of putting routines and procedures in place and dealing with that many kids was exhausting.

I've been dealing with feet/ankle swelling issues since returning to work -- being more on my feet than before and being in a H-O-T, stressful environment has left me amazingly cankelicious.

This was the first day. I thought this was bad. Now they are regularly twice this size.
Plus... I used to have arches -- what happened?

On top of all of that, on Friday, my contractions (which I've had since about 26 weeks) went into overdrive and got really close together for a while. I tried to ignore them for the most part, since JJ was NOT allowed to come into this world on Friday because of Chris squeezing in one last great adventure on the Diamond on Longs Peak and being out of cell phone range for almost 24 hours (yay for hubby doing awesome on a route neither one of us ever thought he'd do!!). Once Chris returned, we had a pep talk with JJ that he can now feel free to come anytime he is ready, thus resulting in more close together contractions Saturday morning that ultimately tapered off. Today was a bit of a repeat of yesterday and although the contractions have tapered off again, we can't help but feel that this is truly the beginning of the end. We'll see how tomorrow goes at work!

Well, this blog wasn't meant to sound whiny, believe it or not I actually started this blog to highlight some of the fun things we've done in the past few weeks...

34 weeks. My last ride with the Wednesday night crew before a babysitter becomes necessary. I only rode the road on Waterton Canyon, but it was nice to get out.

Rock climbing at the Boulder Rock Club at 35 weeks. I tried it just to see if I could.
I could... it wasn't pretty though.

A lot of this summer has been spent enjoying time belaying Chris at the gym. It was an awesome way to stay "active" (at least my right arm) and have fun with the hubby.

At 36 weeks, we also celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary by going to The Melting Pot. Yum! I can't believe it has been six wonderful years of marriage and things still get better every day. Our honeymoon phase has still yet to end...

I had a beautiful baby shower with a great group of friends and unbelievable food and cake! My sister, niece, and mom put on a great party (along with the cooking of my dad and bartending by my brother)

Last night we went on another date night to Protos Pizza. Delicious! We are treating every date night like our potential last babysitterless date. We sat outside and enjoyed an awesome sunset. Unfortunately I seem to only be able to take blurry pictures these days...

So basically, while we are REALLY ready for JJ to make his appearance, we are enjoying every last minute together that we have. I can't wait to be a mommy, but today the idea even managed to creep into my head that I might be able to get myself back into good enough shape to race one or two of the Leadville snow races this year...

Life is good.

Bloggedy blog blog

2010-07-21T17:18:00.002-06:00

I just spent the last hour going through my blog posts from last summer.

I laughed, I cried, I got a little jealous of myself.

I really think that's the best part of blogging -- being able to look back at different times and see what we were up to. Since we have both been such ridiculously inconsistent and boring bloggers as of late, I'm sure Chris and I are our only readers at this point... but, my hope is that next summer I'll be able to look back with fondness at our pregnancy and post-ankle-accident induced laziness (and Chris's standard of being "lazy" would have my crying with exhaustion, but to each his own...).

As for my current state -- I am 33 1/2 weeks preggo, still expanding rapidly, eating constantly, and staying "active" by walking up the stairs to the bathroom every ten minutes to pee, walking the dog when it's not over 90 degrees, belaying Chris at the climbing gym*, and once-weekly prenatal yoga. I hope to ride my bike or trainer a few more times before JJ makes his appearance, but it's so darn hot that I seriously lack the motivation to even try. I can't complain though, it has been really fun to have a summer "off" from the pressures of constantly doing something and I am loving almost every second of growing this little guy.

There are only a few more precious weeks of vacation before school starts back up again. I really have enjoyed having the summer off. I can't complain about not working during my third trimester! I will be working a few weeks before having twelve weeks off with the kiddo, so while that few weeks will be really brutal and HOT HOT HOT (darn ghetto schools with no a/c), I'll make it.

Well, that's about it for now!

*belaying Chris at the gym is always super entertaining. Only in Boulder can someone 8 months pregnant get asked if she's climbing that 5.11 next -- haha, my response is always "uhh, no, but thanks for believing in me!". I also got stalked by an acupuncturist lady wanting to feel my "tired pulses" and make the uncanny observation that I "must be tired" because she can tell from my eye vibes, pulses (we have more than one pulse?), and some other crap. Really? Someone 8 months pregnant in the heat of July being tired? Wow! She's insightful :) Haha. She was nice, but... ummmm... yeah. There's Boulder for ya!

When in Rome...

2010-07-10T18:04:00.006-06:00

Or should I say...

When 32 weeks pregnant...

Do as the tourists do!

That's exactly what we just spent the day doing, and it was fabulous.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I've had a bit of a rough time adjusting to my more sedentary lifestyle. Afterall, summers are usually the time that Chris and I rack up some good 14er hiking in our attempt to finish all 54 as a couple, but since I have a physical and moral obligation to my unborn baby to not deprive him of oxygen, that can't happen. It is 100% worth it, but it's still an adjustment.

Last night we found ourselves just outside of Aspen in the wonderful town of Carbondale, for a Ride the Divide showing, featuring Chris as the Q&A speaker at the end. The movie is great and it's fun watching people ooh and aah over Chris doing the route on a single speed just a few days short of the overall record time. Before the show, we had some great Thai food with the filmmakers and we got to stay the night for free in a super cute little cabin owned by the lady who brought the movie to Carbondale. It was really nice of her to give up her house to Chris, Turbo, and I for the night!

This morning we went back to Dos Gringos (where the movie was shown) for some awesome breakfast burritos. If you ever find yourself in Carbondale, find Dos Gringos, it is soooooooooooo delicious (if you've ever been to the coffee shop adjacent to Absolute Bikes in Salida, it's very similar).

Since we were already in the area, we headed up to Aspen to go see the Maroon Bells. Chris had a plan to climb the Bells the night before, but instead he played his role as super-baby-daddy and stayed the night with me instead (have I mentioned that he is an awesome husband?? :) ). Because we were headed up to Maroon Lake after 9 am, we had to take the tourist shuttle up the road. Chris and I were both literally and figuratively, well, very out of our element. As the driver drove five miles an hour up the road, stopping to talk about avalanche chutes and aspen trees, Chris and I worked to entertain ourselves. We did listen just long enough for the bus driver to tell the bus of tourists that "there are 54 14,000 foot mountains in Colorado, called 14ers, which is why Colorado is called the 'Rocky Mountain State'". Ummm, what? He also proceeded to tell everyone that the Bells are nicknamed The Deadly Bells because "every year, at least one person goes up and falls off the mountain". Ummm, okay, not really, but okay.

It was also nearly noon and in Colorado, you don't go up to the high mountains to walk around at noon. Daily rain and thunder storms make this idea stupid, and not even once did the driver warn the poor tourists not to head *up* any of the trails. Luckily it was raining as we exited the bus, so hopefully not many of them decided to walk to the higher lake as they had planned. We walked the short path to Maroon Lake and got a good little peak at the Bells before standing under the shelter of the bathrooms analyzing various couloirs and climbing routes in the area. It was really nice to be in the mountains instead of on the couch like I have spent most of this summer. The Bells were fantastically beautiful and I can't wait to go back to climb them. If you are from out of town and find yourself in the Aspen area, it is worth taking this bus up to the lake to look around. The views are spectacular!

32 week picture!

It was rainnnnnnnnny.

After a short time spent admiring the Bells, we walked around the Aspen ski area a little bit and discovered a store devoted completely to brownies. Marni-heaven! Then, Chris decided to take us home via Independence Pass -- a highway that connects Aspen and Leadville through some amazing country.

We even pulled off at the top of the pass to walk to the overlook and admire the clearing weather and spectacular views. We even got to gawk at La Plata, a 14er that we hiked in the snow in November 2008. I love looking at a big peak, knowing that I have been on the top, and remembering the beautiful views we saw along the way and the horrible knee pain I had coming back down.

The big flat-topped looking mountain behind us is La Plata and Ellingwood Ridge. Yes, I'm wearing three coats...

Chris will always be Chris and got excited when he found a place to boulder along the trail. Haha.

This person seemed scared that they'd fall off the side of the pass, so instead of driving in their lane, they nearly creemed several oncoming cars by driving pretty far over the center line. Hmmmm....

Coming back into Leadville, we got to see more of the mountains we climbed the last few years, and it was fun trying to pick out and name each of them. We constantly had our 14ers book out, comparing pictures to views, and telling stories of previous trips. When we got into town, we stopped at the best pizza place in the area (which is tiny and was packed because of the rain), and we took the pizza back into the car to eat. It was soooooooo tasty. Go there too.

This is a bit of a gross picture of me, but it shows how excited Turbo was for us to come eat our lunch in the car.

We finally headed back on I70 and got home not too long ago.

The day was rainy, but getting to be in the mountains with Chris at all, even at a tourist level, was fantastic. It was an important reminder to slow down once in a while, forget about doing everything the hard way, and just enjoy this beautiful state that we're lucky enough to live in.

Kudos to the Daddy

2010-07-05T16:52:00.004-06:00

Pregnancy is a really bizarre time.

The things that you take for granted everyday, like rolling over in bed, sleeping soundly on your back, or shaving your own legs become impossible.

I have had a remarkably easy pregnancy -- no daily puking being high on the list of things I'm incredibly grateful for -- but even so, this hasn't been the easiest of adventures. But I'm lucky. I get to feel the little wiggle-worm squirm inside me and change positions and get morning hiccups. I get the compliments of friends and total strangers of being "beautiful" even when I feel far from it.

I think Chris deserves some serious kudos for his role in this adventure though, because without him, I would be a huge mess. In reading various baby board threads, so many women rag on their husbands for being insensitive, rude, and downright awful during their pregnancies. I always take these posts with a grain of salt, afterall a hormone-enraged pregnant woman is writing about it on an internet forum. But they also make me appreciate my "baby daddy" even more.

Sure, Chris has developed a nickname for me this pregnancy that some might take as, well, insensitive... but "Giant Whale Wifey" is only said out of love and when I'm actually feeling like a giant whale, he is full of sweet things to say.

Now that my ab muscles have essentially disintegrated beneath this kid, who is the one who pushes me up off the couch, pulls me out of a chair, or rolls me out of bed? Hubby.

Who has rearranged his own sleeping position to accommodate my mote-o-blankets that surrounds me at night? Who makes sure he sleeps a little closer so if I start to tip over, I at least tip onto him? Hubby.

When I whine and complain and get hormonal and sad about all of the things that I *can't* do this summer, like hiking 14ers, racing the Winter Park mtb series, and eating at our favorite summer deli, guess who is there to talk me down, remind me that this great time will only come once or twice in our lifetimes? Hubby.

Who goes with me to birthing classes that are taught by a really annoying lady, answers questions for me so I don't have to be the one talking in front of the group, and passes me funny notes about the ridiculous guy across the room who just stepped out of a time machine from 1986? My wonderful hubby.

Who goes on a walk with me, and when I get hot, offers to let me wear his shorts while he wears his shirt as a skirt? That's my man! (and no, I did not take him up on this generous offer!)

I could probably go on forever about how great and supportive and wonderful he's been throughout the last 31 weeks, almost six years of marriage, and 9 years of knowing each other, but we have a birthing class and Cold Stone ice cream date coming up awfully quickly.

Thank you hubby for all you have done for me! Hopefully this post doesn't embarrass you too much, but I think the blog world should know that you're not only an awesome biker, climber, mountaineer, and friend, but you are one kickass baby-daddy as well.

(disclaimer: I really hate the term "baby daddy" too, but since everyone complains about theirs, I might as well brag about mine :) )

JJ's blog

2010-07-02T19:23:00.002-06:00

Here is a link to baby JJ's new blog!

Another update on my blog to come soon since I really have nothing better to do than sit in the coolish basement on the couch and avoid the heat of the day! I have exhausted any slightly interesting internet links, am seriously caught up on reading blogs, and simply cannot stand 99% of TV that's on.

Time to start blogging again!

Cobwebs

2010-06-08T12:29:00.006-06:00

Today, the 90+ degree weather finally eased up and Chris, Turbo, and I managed to get out to Colorado Hills for a beautiful ride. The cloud cover was heavenly after sweltering the last few days and being out in the fresh air was a welcome relief from hiding in the coolness of the basement.

After picking through pretty much every pair of shorts and every jersey in my bike drawer, I finally resigned myself to the fact that I have officially outgrown everything I own. Luckily I have an awfully nice hubby who doesn't mind me poaching his stuff, so outfitted in a pair of his shorts and his jersey, we were finally on our way. Turbo and I drove to the dogpark while Chris rode over there.

The ride was slow going, but not as slow and painful as I expected. At 27 weeks preggo, I wasn't quite sure how the little rocks and bumpiness would go. Other than making me stop to pee (which is pretty ridiculous considering we rode for a total of, maybe 5 miles?), I felt pretty good. In the beginning of this pregnancy and most of the way through the second trimester, I was pretty good at staying on the trainer at least every other day for a half hour just to keep *some* of my leg fitness I've worked so hard to get over the last few years. As school got crazy and I was spending all of my time and energy working and in night class, that routine quickly got thrown out the window.

Pretty yellow flowers everywhere and those heaven-sent clouds!

I'm really glad I found a comfy non-SLR seat pre-preggo that I like. I'm pretty sure I'd be cursing the SLR right about now...

Today, I am happy to report, that my legs actually felt like they had decent power. I think it's from heaving my heavy butt around every day (yes, I've gained a little more than 1/5th of my pre-pregnancy weight already and four pounds this week alone. As the dr said, "pregnancy seems to be the great equalizer" in the weight category, and since my BMI was under 18 when I got preggo, they warned me I'd gain quite a bit. But still. YIKES!!!!).

There were many-a-cobwebs to clean out of both my legs and my mind but by the time the ride was done I felt better than I have in over a month. For a little while there, I sorta felt like my old self -- which is a welcome feeling when you wake up every morning looking and feeling drastically different than you ever have before.

I love my boys.

You know the pup had a great time when he spends the ride home drooling all over the arm rest.

In other news, we finally -- after a few years of having an empty room after moving the couch and TV to the cooler basement -- have our living room furnished again! It took a while to get there, but our new couches are awesome and the fresh coat of paint (to cover up the bike tire marks from the trainers/rollers being too close to the wall -- whoops) look fantastic. I can't wait to spend many many hours playing in this room with baby!

The room is not totally finished, but it's pretty darn close and I love going down here just to sit and enjoy.

Since we had to get rid of the guest bed upstairs to make room for Baby, we found a couch that converts pretty awesomely into bed (the bottom near the chaise pulls out and makes one gigantic rectangle couch/bed).

We are also slowly getting moving on the nursery, but that deserves its own blog later this week!

Bitter sweet end

2010-05-30T18:23:00.004-06:00

As of Friday around 1:30, I have officially been on SUMMER BREAK!!! (at least from work, as my Maymester grad class does not end until this Friday...)

It was very strange finishing out this year. I was stressed, very short on patience, and frankly feeling quite gigantic. For the past couple of years, the school year has ended with weekly time trials down at Cherry Creek, which managed to keep me sane, relaxed, and focused on something else rather than the end of school. This year school ended with me taking classes four out of five nights a week, little to no exercise, and little to no actual sleep.

It was rough.

Luckily the kids were good and we ended the year on a positive note. Chris was sweet enough to join us at our end of the year celebration (parents like to call it "graduation", but really? It's Kindergarten...). We both watched in awe as one of my little guys wolfed down a plate FULL of hot cheetos and washed it down with orange sugar juice -- and that was all. We were constantly amazed at the parents inhaling multiple plates of food and pizza while the teachers stood around hungry. Chris played a version of "fetch" with the wound up five year olds for an hour outside to help burn off the four or five cupcakes that they each managed to snag before anyone noticed.

My favorite part of the day? One parent wanted a class picture, so we gathered up all of the cheeto stained kids and smiled for a few pictures before one of them, and then all of them, adamantly insisted that Chris be in the picture too. Those kids loved him from the moment they saw him and they were luckily enough to have in come in help on a fairly regular basis. Even if he was just in for a few minutes, they would crowd around him with books or their writing journals and want nothing more than to read with him, show off their writing, or tell him funny stories. By the end of the last day, he even became their new tattling post (much to my pleasure to pass on that crown). Chris is an AMAZING teacher for those kids and as hard as I've tried I can't seem to convince him to teach Kindergarten. Any school that doesn't hire him to teach there is missing out on an amazing opportunity. There are not many of him out in this world -- wanting to teach because he genuinely wants to make a difference -- his care, love, and management shocks me every time I see him with my students.

Packing up my classroom this year was a bit of a bitter sweet experience. I absolutely could not wait to be done. This summer holds so many exciting things that I've waited years and years to do -- painting and preparing a nursery at the top of that list. But at the same time, it was hard to pack up the classroom knowing that when I return in August, I will be 9 months pregnant, about to explode, and essentially setting up MY classroom and MY students for someone else to teach for three months. I know that when I go back after Thanksgiving, I will want to be somewhere else. There will be another kid in my life to focus my energy on, and I know that it might take a year or two to get back to being as good of a teacher as I know I can be. It will be, well, different.

Good different, but different.

And I'm not generally a fan of different. Different overwhelms me.

Hence many many tears yesterday, some undue anxiety, and inner stress when all I *should* be doing is enjoying being on summer break.

But, as with any year, I think a week of decompression and rest is going to make all the difference in the world.

Then we can start working on that nursery!!

Meanwhile, since blogs are not as fun without pictures, here are a few from our little jaunt up Eldorado Canyon today -- Chris bouldering around, me pushing his pad so he would fall on something soft.

As we hiked up to the boulder, Chris told me "we have to think of something funny to answer when people ask what's on my back?" (bouldering pad), I just sorta scoffed but not thirty seconds later a nice, old, tourist man said "What is that thing on your back?" Haha. It was funny...
26 weeks! Chris now calls me "Chunky Monkey".
I am one to admit that I think bouldering is one of the stupider aspects of climbing. You climb something short, with no protection but a pad on the ground. Chris took me so I could see what it really is like. He's right. It serves its purpose, looks hard, and is not really that dangerous (at least today, haha).

Conversation of the day

2010-05-15T09:26:00.003-06:00

Yes it is only 9:30 am on Saturday morning and we already have a winner for the "conversation of the day" between hubby and I.

me: "are you having an emotional affair?" (joking, I'm reading a pretty funny/sad thread on one of the baby boards)

C: "with my skis?"

me: "maybe"

C: "No more of an emotional affair than you're having with that picture of brownies and cream cookies."

:)

Self-rule

2010-05-14T16:15:00.002-06:00

We all read Lord of the Flies by William Golding in high school right? Where the schoolboys are left to govern themselves on the island and all sorts of horrible, yet totally predictable, things end up happening?

Well, today I found out what would happen if that situation ever arose with my classroom of kids.

I am sick.

Really really stinkin' sick.

I was better enough to even go to yoga on Wednesday (don't even get me started on how fantastic prenatal yoga feels), but then Thursday I regressed big time and now I have a horrible hacking cough complete with Snuffleupagus voice and all (wait, does he talk? I'm sure he does, and he probably sounds like me).

If it weren't taking one precious paid day away from my already thin maternity leave in the fall, I would've called a sub and stayed home crying in bed. But alas...

Needless to say, my kids did not get the normally authoritative and "teacher-voiced" teacher they are used to today. Luckily it was field day for the rest of the school, so I felt some sort of power to slack off and feel good about it. As my kids played puzzles this morning for no good reason, I needed them to clean up. I "shouted" (okay, wheezed) out a "clean up" and this is when I realized what would happen if Lord of the Flies happened in room 224.

One kid heard me say clean up, and then, almost simultaneously, 17 five year olds broke out in the "Clean Up" song -- yeah, the one from Barney (Clean up, clean up, everybody everywhere, clean up clean up, everybody do your share...).

UGH! I HATE THAT SONG!!

I have it banned from my classroom for a good reason.

Only they didn't just sing that song, they just sang the "Clean up, clean up, clean up, clean up, clean up" part. For ten minutes.

Ah, self-rule in Kindergarten. Enough to make anyone nutzzzz.

8ish days left!!

Empty Threat

2010-05-13T19:20:00.002-06:00

My kids will not be quiet.

Life is just oh too exciting in May and they don't want anyone to miss out on any part of it.

When Teacher is preggo and suffering from a really nasty cold, she can be a little... well... short on patience.

Today when they wouldn't be quiet about five minutes before the final bell rang for school to get out, I threw out the empty threat that "we can sit here all night if we have to!" only to be greeted by...

Excited squeals and "YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I guess I had that coming.

9ish school days left...

Happy mother's day!

2010-05-07T19:07:00.003-06:00

Well, it's that time of year again.

May daze.

The time of year when students are sick of each other, students are sick of Teacher, and Teacher is sick of students.

I'm there. My kids are there. We've been there for a few weeks now. But there are still shining moments...

It is also that time of year for assessments.

Long gone are the days when Kindergarten was all fun and games. My kids are expected to read, write, add, and subtract. Every year there are kids that shock me with what they managed to learn during the school year. I love teaching Kindergarten because I don't feel like I teach them a whole lot, but then one day they manage to read you a book. After five years, I'm still not sure how they actually learn to read.

I have one little guy that I'm so proud of that I can't help but brag about him here. He was not dealt the easiest home life. His mom struggles to make ends meet. Before he entered my class this year, he was one of *those* kids that you hear about ahead of time. I was warned about him. I was warned about his behavior, lack of attention and self-control, and, despite being in a preschool program, had managed to learn next to nothing.

When he came into my room he still could not write his name and his letters more closely resembled an uncontrolled scribble than English. He was a handful.

Today he came in for his end-of-the-year testing and he is leaving Kindergarten "on grade level" in reading, writing, AND math. His behavior is good -- he still struggles with self-control now and then, but he's good. He's generally polite. He genuinely cares about other people. I don't take any credit for any of this, he has been greatly blessed with an amazing mom.

She kicked out his bad-influence father so that her son could have a better life. She has held her child to seriously high standards academically and worked with him at home more than any parent I have had in my class -- because she knows how hard life is when you drop out of school. She has put her own aspirations aside to make sure he has a steady home-life. She takes him to the boys' club to make sure he stays active and is able to get his energy and aggression out in a productive way.

Today I had the pleasure of showing her exactly how far he has come. She whipped tattered flash cards out of her coat pocket that she made and has been working on him with. She downplays her role in his success, but I admire her.

A few hours later my student came knocking on my door with a mother's day card in his hand. For me. From him and his mom.

I just hope that I can be as good of a mom to my son as she is to hers.

Catch-up

2010-04-25T15:48:00.009-06:00

Well, I haven't blogged in a while.

Work, grad school, and growing a person are keeping me really busy and without anything terribly interesting to say. I would say that all will calm down after my linguistics class ends in two weeks, but I am now also enrolled in a Maymester class that will be three intense weeks of 4:30-8:30 T-F class. Ick! So my new goal is to survive until June 5th-ish, when that class will be done and I will be dangerously close to finishing my masters.

So, rather than trying to make something exciting out of a pretty uneventful last few weeks, here are some random pictures to hold the blog over until I actually have something to say...
There are so many unattractive parts to this picture, including my post-ride, pre-shower face/hair, and the sheetless bed in the background, but it does show the growing belly off pretty well! I took this last weekend, which will probably be the last ride that I am able to squeeze into my team jersey. This even required a bit of a *shove the belly in and ZIP!* effort. I do love my belly though!

Turbo has taken an extreme loving to his little brother already as he seems to have become especially protective of me and even snugglier than usual

The climbing harness still fits -- I've sorta relegated myself to belay-only duty though. Chris particularly enjoys this :)

Nom nom nom. A few weeks ago I made a pretty spectacular meal of home-made ravioli, pancetta, asparagus, and butter. Mmmmmmmm. Yummmmmm.

And to all of you SlipAngles fans, here are two pictures to prove that Chris did not, in fact, fall off the face of the planet. He's taking a bit of a blog-break, but I try to convince him daily to get back into it :) He, too, has been a busy busy bee!

It's a...

2010-04-05T17:00:00.006-06:00

Oh BOY my nephew was excited to cut open the blue "gender cake" and see the color! He stood fast in his prediction of boy while his uncles, sister, and mom tried to convince him he was wrong. Good guess Trevor!
And yes, I realize one day our little guy will kill me for posting this shot, but it's a fun one :)

Resisting the urge...

2010-03-21T14:03:00.007-06:00

And only slightly succeeding.

The urge to become a very lazy pregnant bump on a log is really hard to resist.

While Chris was in Alaska I did a fairly good job at getting into a routine of riding the trainer and walking the dog. That made me feel a little less lazy.

As he's returned, so too has my sedentary lifestyle. I'm not sure why. Afterall, he's the motivator behind most activity that I actually do.

I did get out for a good ride last Saturday with the team. Skipping Cherry Creek Time Trials this year (the fun aspect of the race's organization seems to have slipped, and the course has changed -- thus no good baseline for personal improvement), the team has decided to start monthly "death matches" up Lookout Mountain. As the emails shot back and forth about who could make it and how it would be pulled off, I grew increasingly jealous. I really do love Lookout Mountain. I have slogged my butt up that mountain and cried on the descent, and I've also raced my hardest up and beat my best expectations for my own performance. I've frozen my butt off, nearly broiled to death, but always have a good time.

So, last Saturday, my 15 week pregnancy mark, the group did their first death match. I couldn't resist. Despite some urging from a few teammates not to do it (you know, the preggoness and all), I wanted to go up and have a nice fun ride with the group. For the last three years Chris and I have both done the research on what I'll be able to safely do and not safely do when I could finally get pregnant. The only pieces of advise that we could come across were to keep my heartrate below 140 (although that also appears to be old research, that was the only guideline both the OB and fertility doc both gave me, so I follow it), avoid extreme altitude, and not to lose balance and fall over. I could handle all of these things and so I decided to ride.

The day was spectacularly beautiful and I'm glad I got out. I started out WAY before the rest of the group and spun my very easiest (which is hard to do completely uphill). I stopped at a few pullouts and enjoyed the view. I drank a lot of water and fueled myself with peanut butter m&ms. I cheered my teammates on as they passed me one by one and eventually just enjoyed the cruise up the hill and making conversation with people passing me huffing and puffing. It was quite nice. It took me forever to get to the top (52 minutes or something? My PR from the race last May is 27 minutes). I didn't care about the time and was mostly proud of myself for getting out and huffing the baby up a decent hill.

I even got to shock one snooty roadie who passed me in his fancy-schmancy team kit on his fancy-schmany Cervelo, who had the nerve to remark about how slow I was going (or perhaps about the fact that I was wearing a pack for a road ride) near the top. When I yelled out "hey man, four months pregnant!" the "OH SHIT!" was priceless. Serves him right. What guy really makes a snide comment to a girl riding her bike anyway? What an ass. It was great.

The ride went well and we hurried off to the car because I had a hair appointment in Boulder shortly after. We were still a half hour late for the appointment, and I somehow managed to pull a muscle getting OUT of the car (really, I can ride my bike just fine, but get hurt getting out of a car? This must be Chris's kid...). I spent the next two days in pain, so that was lovely. A rough week at work coupled with some self-induced laziness, has brought me to today. It is Sunday. I am trying to convince myself to go walk the dog after just finishing some really boring and not very-well-done-homework.

Or I could go eat some more.

Hmmm, yes, that does sound like the better option...

(Here are some 16 week pics taken yesterday. Not the best pictures, AT ALL, but you can see the baby bump starting to stick out.)
The levitating doggy trick!
And her belly was as white as snow...
This angle doesn't show it very well, but Turbo sure looks cute :)

Tangled Tales

2010-03-19T20:29:00.003-06:00

Today I had to choose four of my students to come down and talk with a very strange lady training us on how to expand our students' oral language.

First of all, yes, apparently some of us need to learn how to *talk* to kids. Really. Amazed me too.

Second of all, my kids are five. Maybe six. There were 10 teachers watching and this very strange lady talking to them (did I mention she's a bit strange?).

So anyway, she told me to get four monolingual English speakers that have oral language issues. I laughed. If she wanted four monolingual English speakers, she'd have to settle for whoever I brought down, as I only really have four in my classroom. Total.

As she was talking to the kids about "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" she realized that the book she chose did not really lend itself to much conversation. That book has its purposes, and creating conversation about events and meaning are not one of them. So, after telling a very unfunny story about a cat sitting on her bed (which she evidently thought was hilarious) she asked one of my students to tell a story about a dog. The one boy in the group started a wonderful story, and it went a little something like this.

"Once upon a time there was a dog."

(lady stares at him and then asked "what was the dog doing?")

"Well, the dog went on a walk. To downtown."

(At this point I'm thinking the kid is a rockstar, because this is going to be one good story and blow this lady out of the water. I must admit I started to beam with pride. The lady asks "wow! what did he do downtown?")

"Someone killed him. The end."

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Hmmmmmmmm.

And there you have it.

Needless to say, she did not ask any of my other kids to tell a story.

The end.

Unstoppable

2010-03-05T00:01:00.000-07:00

October 5, 2009 seems like an entire lifetime ago.

In reality, it was five months ago.

Exactly.

Five months ago that I drove home from school feeling generally *okay* about the miscarriage for the first time in a week, and celebrating my first day without breaking down in tears by listening (and poorly singing to) oldies on the radio.

As I pulled up to the house, I looked in the front window as I always do when Chris has been on an adventure that day. I saw him sitting at the table by his computer, as I usually do, and sighed a quick sigh of relief that he was home -- until I spotted the crutches propped up against the table next to him. I zoomed into the garage, took a deep breath, and headed into the house only to see Chris at the table not willing to turn to face me. I greeted the ever excited dog and walked around to the table to see him sitting on the phone with blood shot eyes, a bloody eyebrow, and a look of shock. I'll never forget what he said when I asked what happened -- "you're going to be soooooooo mad at me!"

As he told me the story of being caught in an avalanche and being pretty sure he broke his ankle -- all while waiting on hold with Kaiser to find the cheapest place to get immediate treatment -- I couldn't believe what I was hearing. There was no room to be mad. I was extremely grateful he was alive and I quickly took over the task of waiting on hold, packing up items for an evening at the hospital, and whipping up some portable food.

As we drove the hour to the cheapest after-hour care facility down near my parents' house, we both were in a state of shock. Sometimes giggling from nervousness, sometimes being silent, but never once letting go of the death-grip each of us had on each other's hand.

As I sat with my head between my knees in the doctor's office as the brutal nurse wrapped the clearly broken ankle, fighting the urge to pass out, I remember thinking that things could've been a lot worse.

As I drove a writhing-in-pain-Chris home, I knew these seven days would change both of us somehow.

As I spent that night staring at his chest, willing him to self-heal any possible internal injuries that the doctors didn't check for, popping him pills every hour, and fighting visuals of what had happened, I hoped he'd return to his usual adventurous, excited-self.

As we spent the next two weeks sleeping maybe two hours at a time, I found myself feeling irritated that he somehow couldn't find a way to heal quicker. He seemed to be thinking the same thing.

As he accepted the invitation to ride the Iditarod Trail Invitational in Alaska at the end of February, and as he ordered his new fancy-dancy custom single speed snow bike, we were both excited, but both apprehensive that he'd even be in shape to do it. Both of us were running on pure faith at that point. How else can we justify, looking back on it, spending so much money toward this adventure when moving from the bed upstairs to the couch downstairs was an event in itself?

As Chris started having doubts and talking about backing out of this race, I told him not to decide anything until the very last minute. "You never know where you'll be in a few months, maybe you can do it! Or, well, at least maybe you can just go and enjoy a trip to Alaska..." We both could talk a good game at individual points in time, but to be 100% honest, did either of us consider that he would *actually* be able to do it? The whole thing? I don't know. I know I hoped he could.

So here we are today, five months later, to the day. Today, on March 5th, 5 months after that crazy, ankle-crushing accident, Chris is inching dangerously close to McGrath. The finish line. He could finish late tonight. It could be tomorrow. Only time will tell. He will have ridden/walked/slogged/pushed his singlespeed through really tough conditions for 350 miles.

I can't wait to hear his story. I know the ankle will play a factor. I know that when he returns from his trip, that limp will be there -- probably more prevalent than the last few months.

But really? FIVE months later? To be finishing (quite well might I add) arguably the most brutal winter bike race in the world?

Wow.

I am bursting with pride.

There will be a lot of tears when he returns, there always are after a big adventure like this. But tears of pride and joy will be mixed with tears of relief. As my belly starts to pop with a new baby, and Chris tells tales of the Iditarod, I think we will finally be able to leave that awful week behind. We won't forget the lessons we learned from those two terrible Mondays, but we can move on.

Happy 5-month-breakaversary darling.

And a premature, but very proud, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Idita-wha?

2010-02-24T17:30:00.004-07:00

Tomorrow hubby leaves for Alaska where he'll spend the next, oh, three to ten days riding his beautiful Fatback on the Iditarod trail -- starting Sunday.

Before meeting Chris, my exposure to the Iditarod trail came primarily where most elementary teacher's knowledge comes from -- the book Balto. Yes, Balto. You probably read it in elementary school if you went in the 80s or 90s. I even used it as a guided reading book for my super high group when I taught 1st grade. It's a good book. I'm pretty sure at some point in my elementary career we also tracked the progress of the Iditarod dogs on some giant map. From there, my mind drifts to eskimos with furry hoods, beautiful husky dogs, and wind blowing snow across a barren landscape.

When I met Chris, he wasn't into this nutty stuff. He had a motorcycle and raced for the CU Triathlon team. That was all pretty normal. As everything spiraled out of control, as it often does with him, and I became introduced to the world of endurance cycling, he would talk about the Ultrasport -- or Iditabike -- or Iditarod Trail Invitational. Beats me what it's actually called, because I've heard all of these used to describe it... Hmmm... oh well. Doesn't matter. Anyway, I came to realize that the Iditarod trail in the winter was not just for eskimos and husky dogs any more. I didn't think it was for MY Chris, but I certainly saw that other crazies could do it on foot or on bike.

Fast forward to about July of 2009. Chris was coming down off his Tour Divide high and said he would love to do the Ultrasport but that it usually fills up so fast that there's no way he'd get in. Being the ever-encouraging wife, and knowing full well that he most likely wouldn't make it in, I told him to look into it. He did. It was full. Alaska was a no-go. Awww shucks ;)

Fast forward again to early October 2009. Chris was healing for crazy broken ankle, feeling pretty down on life and sports in general. We were both recovering from the biggest physical upset either of us had ever gone through, and life was taken one tiny step at a time. I tried to cheer Chris up, give him some goal to work towards or something to look forward to. My attempts were usually lame and not helpful. One day, as I prepared the gazillionth dinner in a row for the two of us, ready to schlep it upstairs to the bed that doubled as a dinner table -- I heard a really loud "HOLY CRAP! NO WAY!" come shouting from the bedroom. My little zombie had come to life suddenly! Scared his foot had somehow fallen off or he suddenly realized it was perfectly fine and not actually broken (the only two plausible causes for such a reaction at the time), I ran to the stairs and yelled "WHAT?" "You won't believe it!!" He hobbled to the top of the stairs and there was a look of elation on his face. "WHAAAATTTTT?" (wifey gets a little cranky without sleep...) "Umm, how do you feel about me going to Alaska in February????" (big giant smile) I specifically remember saying "wow! what do you mean?" in a pretty flat tone as I went back to the kitchen (yeah, cranky...). I'm pretty sure that wasn't the reaction he expected. He went on to explain that Bill had emailed him and asked if he wanted a spot on the start list. There was a brief conversation of Chris asking me if it was okay for him to go (really, would I tell my depressed broken husband that he couldn't do the one thing that had brought a smile to his face in the last two weeks???) and then general giddiness for the rest of the night. While his smile grew, my worries grew.

Now don't get me wrong, I was happy for him. I believed in him. I knew he would somehow be able to do it. But I'd read Jill's book, followed her exploits the following year on the internet, and then got to hear her frostbite stories from the Ultrasport firsthand as we drove her up to Banff. I had also just experienced snow being a bad, bad, bad thing.

With time, as always seems to happen, my excitement for this race grew right along with Chris's. As he ordered his new bike, waited what seemed like forever to get it, and watched him push his body to heal itself, I became more than a little invested in this race with him.

As he leaves tomorrow, with a feeling of being underprepared, undertrained, and rookie-ish, I see a pretty kickass husband getting ready to go have an unbelievable adventure. The rest of the world probably wishes they were as "undertrained" as he is. We could all be so lucky. Sure, his body isn't 100% perfect, but if I've ever met anyone who can override their physical state with stubbornness and willpower, it'd be him. I envy the views he's going to take in up in Alaska. I envy the feeling of being away from civilization, away from bills, away from work, away from internet and cell phones. I envy the possibility of seeing the northern lights. I don't envy the cold, but whatever, that's just not my cup of tea.

I know that, as with every adventure he sets his mind to, things will end up exceeding his expectations. Things will not go perfectly -- they never do. There will be highs and lows and times of self-doubt. But no matter what, he will always have me back here at home believing in him, trusting him, cheering him on as loudly as one can do inside her head or inside a closed car. I, personally, along with more than a few of you, will be glued to the updates on the web. The ultrasport does not allow racers to carry a SPOT (my beef with that ranges far and wide), so I will depend on someone else to let me know how hubby is doing. I don't trust very easily. But I do trust Chris. And I know he'll be doing the best that he can, hopefully soaking in views that most of us will never be lucky enough to set eyes on.

Good luck my Christopher. Enjoy the journey, whatever it brings.

Long Road...

2010-02-21T14:55:00.001-07:00

It has been a long road and quite the journey, but...

my

is

!!!!!!!!!!!

Baby Plesko is due Saturday, September 4th (labor day weekend!). I just turned over the 12 week mark and we've seen a healthy, growing, happy, wonderful, and ridiculously cute baby three times on ultrasound already. We thought it was time to share our exciting news with the world!

Look how cute he/she is already! Showing off those future climbing arms and riding legs :)

Eenie Meenie...

2010-02-10T20:05:00.002-07:00

Here is a conversation (ok, game) that I overheard one of my girls playing today during inside recess. She was sitting with four other girls.

"Eeenie, Meenie, odda oh, patcha mida, bodda, bo. My momma told me to pick my very best friend and you, you, you, no wait, you, are it" (and she pointed to one girl. When the other girls threw a hissy fit she went on to say...) "Okay, you are all going to be my friends, I just have to pick, okay? Is that so hard? Eeenie, Meenie, odda oh, patcha mida, bodda, bo..."

And this continued on for nearly ten minutes. Choosing a different person each time until all the girls were completely satisfied with her choice. Then they continued on with their puzzle. For a second I thought about interrupting and teaching her the *actual* words to eenie meenie, but then again, those don't make much sense either, so I let it go.

While I'm on funny kid stories, I told Chris this one the other day and he insisted that I put it on the blog... so it must be good :)

When my kids came in the other morning, one of the moms pulled me aside and said "check little homie's backpack, he has something pretty inappropriate for a 5 year old..." First the problem was figuring out who the heck "little homie" was. I didn't figure that out, so I called over my three most likely suspects and told them to bring me their backpacks because "I hear someone has something interesting that I should see." They all ran into the coatroom and got their backpacks and came back. My MOST likely suspect brought me his first and said "I have something! Want to see??!!!" so I thought -- oh good, that was easy. He opens up his backpack and what does he pull out? A very loved, red, stuffed bear. He beamed from ear to ear and was so excited to show me -- "cool, huh Mrs Plesko!" Haha. The next kid joyfully opened his backpack only to reveal a very loved, stuffed elephant. Nice. The last kid -- the one I'd probably least suspect of the three (who is also BEST friends with the red bear kid), grudgingly hands over his backpack and there's nothing in it. I was totally confused. Then suspect number 1 shouts out -- very happily might I add, with no hesitation of ratting out his best friend -- "he has a knife in there!" Turns out the kid slipped the fake dagger (okay, it did look pretty real but it was fake) onto the shelf in the coatroom. Due to school policy, he was suspended for the rest of the day. The other two boys continued to gush about their stuffed animals. It was pretty great.

I think that's all of my good stories for now...

Today was evening number one of second trimester conferences. I was supposed to be at work until 8. Around 4:10, the fire alarm went off and we were all ushered outside. After waiting around outside for about fifteen minutes, we were allowed back in (by the awfully cute firefighters by the way!). At 4:45 the fire alarm went off again, we were ushered outside AGAIN. This time, at least, we had a gorgeous setting sun to watch as we stood outside in the cold for about a half hour. When they finally let us back in (and I could get on with the conference I had to start standing in the road), the principal came over the intercom and told us we were all required to leave the school IMMEDIATELY and go home -- something about the fire box or something? Soooooo, it is about 8:00 and I am nicely fed, curled up in sweats, snuggled into bed blogging, and I should just now be leaving school. Ahhhh, nice!!! I know I'll have to make those missed conferences up next week, but for now, I feel like a giddy little kid who has just been given a surprise snow day. Pretty great if you ask me!

This job is hard sometimes...

2010-02-01T18:16:00.003-07:00

Not teaching.

Being a wife.

Specifically, being the wife of a crazy endurance athlete.

I stole this picture from Doug. I love it.

Chris is rocking the Arrowhead today. I'm so proud of him. But I miss having that grand blue dot to follow and stalk relentlessly. Chris chose not to take the SPOT for this race, knowing that the Ultrasport does not allow it (dah, do those guys have wives??? Yes, yes, I know, the organizer is lucky enough to have a wife that also rides it with him!). Anyway, I am remember why exactly I paid good money for that sucker a few Christmases ago! It is like being extremely invested in a football team that is playing in the Superbowl -- that lasts two days -- and you can't find out how it went until it is over. Painful!

Luckily Chris knows that I am a crazy person when I can't be there to cheer him on in person and he managed to squeak in a call from the checkpoint that is midway on the course. He was sounding good, albeit tired and a little ticked that his ankle was so sore. When I told him "you sound good!" he replied with "yeah, I'm trying!" Haha. Thanks honey! After the checkpoint there are supposedly hills-galore and he knew that with the singlespeed he'd end up hiking quite a bit. But he never mentioned quitting -- just a potential nap out in the -15 degree weather. Mmm, sounds lovely!

The hardest part about being an enduro-nut-wifey is not crying back into the phone "it's cold, come home, let me take care of you, I'll feed you your favorite food..." or "I'm sick, come home, take care of me, and make me my favorite food..." Instead I muster a smile, tell him he's kicking butt, and to get back out there and enjoy the views.

Sometimes that statement comes more easily than others, and since this is Chris's first endurance snowbike race (and mine being mental support), it is really hard saying that when you know you're encouraging him to go out into the wilderness in freaking freezing temperatures.

At least he can never I say I didn't fake it for his own good!

(P.S: Happy Groundhog's Day tomorrow... or as one of my Kinders called it today "Hound dog's gay" -- totally obliviously -- haha)

Way to stop blogging there...

2010-01-31T20:35:00.002-07:00

Yes, I've dropped off the radar.

Oh well.

My good blogging comes from an extended internal conversation with myself which ultimately gets written down and called a blog.

I haven't had any good conversations with myself lately. Other things have taken up that space.

But that's not a bad thing.

Today, however, I took Turbo for a nice long walk and I caught up with me. It was nice.

My main thought? Honestly? I might be wishing part of my life away, but when the heck is Spring going to get here? I am SO ready for warmer weather and that fresh, new feeling that comes with the season. I am ready to be able to step out the door and not get chilled to the bone. I am ready to spend a long weekend in Moab, soaking up the red rocks, sand, and sun. I am ready to see the mountains as a haven rather than full of life-threatening avalanches (yes, I am far more traumatized and emotionally wrecked from the avalanche than Chris is -- far, far, more so).

But, here we are starting February and I know we're in for a long haul before I get that fresh, warm weather. I also know that soon enough it'll be summer and I will be seriously complaining about being so hot. I'm a spring/fall kind of girl. I don't care for the extremes.

While Chris has been busy building up his new FatBike (and wow, what a great bike!), training and packing and obsessing about the Arrowhead (which starts tomorrow am) and the UltraSport (end of Feb), I have kept myself plenty busy. This class of Kindergarteners is keeping me busy and wearing me out. They are great. I can't complain about this class, but they are still five. Some days are better than others. I have also started back up being a full-time grad student this semester as well. Luckily for me (and all of those around me), this semester promises to be FAR easier than last semester. There are only so many ways that you can analyze the diversity in your classroom... This semester, however, I am taking a linguistics class (surprisingly fun!) and a psychology hybrid online/a saturday a month class. No offense to psych majors, but my bs skills really come in handy here!

I've done a wee bit of riding. More on the trainer than outside (note my wussiness about the weather). I have done a wee bit more gym climbing. Just enough exercise, I think, to not feel like a total winter blob, but just little enough to feel pretty lazy. It works though.

February doesn't promise to hold much more blogging for me, although I'm going to try -- if there is something blogworthy of course. If you still actually check back here though now and then, stick around for March. I promise it'll be worth your patience.

G'night!

(Oh right, if you want to follow along with Chris on the Arrowhead 135 race tomorrow, here's the link to the blog where race updates should be posted. A brand new single speed snowbike and an ankle that is only four months post crushing and really only 80% better (in my opinion), should make for quite the interesting race for him. He's stoked and excited. I like that. Good luck hubby!)

Oh My Oh-Nine: The Impossible

2010-01-01T15:06:00.008-07:00

As I look back on 2009 and look forward to 2010, I have mixed feelings. Like I said in my previous post, 2009 was great overall, but a few bad memories seem to take over the retrospective. The best way to sum up the year is to say that in 2009, I realized that the impossible can happen -- both in good ways and bad.

Two main adventures stick out in my mind as my big sports accomplishments of 2009. In May, I successfully rode White Rim in a day. Chris and I had previously done this in a 1.5 day camping trip, and I always saw this 100 mile mountain bike ride as impossible for me.
Yet...
100 degrees and 100 miles later...
I did it.

On July 31st, Chris convinced me to get up at 1:30 am to climb Longs Peak. Longs Peak had always scared me, and he not only convinced me to climb it, but he convinced me to climb it via a 5.4 rock climbing route. 5.4 should've been a walk in the park for both of us, but with the route covered in ice from an overnight freeze, the trip became somewhat epic. When we started the climb up Longs, I looked up and declared that it is impossible.
Yet...

I did it.

I've tried to decide which adventure I'm most proud of, White Rim or Longs, and I can't.

In 2009, I also broke the 30 minute mark in the Cherry Creek Time Trials -- which I'm very certain I declared impossible for me to do on more than one occasion. It's hard to look back on 2009 and not marvel at Chris's accomplishments as well. He kicked serious butt and set the singlespeed record on the AZT300 in April. He then went on to dominate the Tour Divide and set the new singlespeed record for the Divide route. Being away from each other successfully for 20 days was something we'd always seen as an impossibility. But, 19 days and 21 minutes later...
He did it. We'd done it.

Of course we all know how the month of October went for the Plesko family. One miscarriage and an avalanche later, and the world found us pretty beaten down and listless. The bad impossibles had happened.

We made a goal of making it to Thanksgiving when things would be looking up. Chris began to walk again and slowly (as it seemed to us, but quite quickly in the world of broken-ankle-recovery) got back to riding and climbing. From there we made a goal of making it to Christmas, when things would hopefully be looking a lot better.

As it turns out, it seems Santa brought our smiles back.

I think 2010 will be full of more surprises, both good and bad. My main goal for 2010? Keep in mind that both the good and bad impossibles can happen, but as long as you keep your head up, each will make you stronger. From there, seek out the adventures in everyday life and enjoy them.

Happy New Year!

Oh my Oh-Nine!

2009-12-28T20:28:00.002-07:00

As this year plows to an end, it is hard not to look back on the last few months and feel like it was a bad year. However, as I look back on all of the pictures and stories of 2009's trips, adventures, purchases, and laughs, it is clear that 2009 was 10.5/12ths absolutely wonderful!

The last few years I have set some goals for the year and then looked back at the end to see if I followed through. Always entertaining to look back on, so here it goes:

Looking forward to 2009? Well, I'm sure it'll hold many surprises just like this year. The word "surprises" is an understatement. I hope to continue to build my climbing skills, as I've really enjoyed climbing both inside and outside this winter. At this point, it's still a Just For Fun hobby with an added bonus of a bit of cross-training for bike season. With no major climbing goals in mind, I simply hope to continue to enjoy it -- safely. I would say we achieved this. We climbed a lot in the Flatirons and Eldo. We even set up a "first ascent" in La Veta (Mind Over Bat Poo). I'm sure Chris and I will continue to work toward our 14ers goals together, hopefully including some multi-mountain-multi-day trips in this summer. Almost every 14er trip this year involved overnight camping partway up the mountain. Time and lack of responsibilities allowed this and it was a blast. We never fit in the super multi-peak challenge we hoped for, but we did get Belford and Oxford done in one day. I will climb Longs Peak this year, perhaps by the traditional Keyhole route, perhaps by a different one. Yeah different one! Go me! Either way, I will do it... even though it scares me. Quite the experience and glad I met this goal! Chris and I have our sights set on a tour of the Colorado Trail this summer -- probably by bikes, but we'll have to see. This was the plan, but honestly, I wussed out. I'm not sure what our summer will look like, with Chris planning more big adventures, and me taking at least one masters class, but somehow we'll fit at least a few fun things in when we can. We did fit in many fun things and I ended up pounding out three masters classes this year. My biking goals for '09? Pretty similar to last year. I'd like to crush the 30 minute mark at Cherry Creek, in addition to trying to make the top 10 at one of the races. The 30 minute mark will be easy, top 10 probably not so easy. But I'll try. I beat the 30 minute mark. It was magical. Top ten, not so much. I want to survive Expert at Winter Park and if I can get top 3 on any race, I'll be super excited. I didn't do many of the Winter Park races this year. The desire and drive wasn't there. Sad. I've kicked around the idea of the Leadville 100. I need to decide soon, as applications need to be in ASAP. It's so expensive though, and hard to commit that much money to 8 months out when I'm trying to get pregnant, but maybe. I feel like I can do it with some good training, and I'd like to do it, so who knows. Well, our group didn't get in and now they are being greedy and jacking up the price even more, so we're priced out of this race for quite a while. Maybe one day. Or maybe one day we'll just ride the course on our own and enjoy the ride for free! That could be fun...

And so we have it. I met some of my big goals, wussed out on one, and surpassed my wildest expectations in a lot of ways. Not too bad.

Tomorrow I will post a wrap-up with pics. Tonight blogger does not want to upload any.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T12:49:00.002-07:00

Merry Christmas from the Pleskos!

If you haven't already answered my poll on facebook, answer it here so I can beat Chris in a bet!

When you sing "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," how do you finish this part: "he'll go down in history (like ________)!" Apparently there are two answers, total news to me! I'm firmly in one camp and Chris is firmly in the other. Help me win.

New Look

2009-12-19T19:28:00.004-07:00

I was getting tired of my blog's look, so it got a quick makeover. Hopefully the colors aren't too painful to read.

In other news, I am officially on Christmas break and couldn't be happier about it. I have a great group of kids, but I think we all needed a little break from each other. I know that two weeks without tattling or crying because "she won't be my friennnnnd" is going to be wonderful. I am going to try to make the most of this break and do my best to relax. This weekend is being used to catch up on much needed sleep and hopefully next week I will get caught up on some much needed ride time. I also plan to eat A LOT. That's what the holidays are for!

I am also happy to be done with grad school for the semester. Taking two classes was hard, but I made it through and I'm glad I am two classes closer to being finished. One of the bigger laughs of the semester came when I wrote my 11 page final paper on one computer, only to try to post it online a few days later. When I went to post it up, I realized that only half of the paper had saved. I had a huge breakdown only to rally myself a few minutes later. I made a goal to try to type the remaining six pages of the paper in one hour. I put my mind to it, finished it, and submitted it knowing that it was total crap. The first paper was good. This was crap. A few days ago I logged back on to see if it had been graded only to find a comment from the professor saying that it was the best paper submitted! Ha! I love my ability to crank out some quality BS! I am signed up for two more classes in the Spring, which will be no easy task, but I'll be happy to get done with this masters sometime in the next year or year and a half. I'm over homework and looking forward to being able to read for fun again!

I am really excited for Christmas this year. Whether it is having a tree, listening to Christmas tunes on XM on the way home from work, or just being excited for 2009 to end and bring on a better year, I'll take it. Chris already got his big Christmas present from Santa and he's off using it this weekend. I'm sure pictures will turn up on his blog as soon as he gets back!

Hopefully in a few days I will get some year-in-review blogs up, because I love having a good excuse to relive all of the fun adventures of the past year.

Giving it a good shot

2009-12-12T15:40:00.008-07:00

I don't put a lot of stock into what my fortune cookies tell me...

unless they say what I want them to!

Then I keep them and put them on display.

The next day, hubby mixed up the goodies...

While Pup watched with great interest...

And I, and my butt, got nervous...

But all went well.

Today we got the job done at the dr's office and now we wait.

I predict my fingers will eventually freeze into the crossed position.

Thankful

2009-11-25T19:21:00.004-07:00

Tomorrow is thanksgiving, which means the usual explosion of "what I'm thankful for" blogs.

Since I could use a little reminder of all that is truly good in life rather than sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I'm going to give in and make one too.

This Thanksgiving, I am thankful for...

the most amazing husband in the whole world. He just gets me. Right now he's making me dinner and we are both singing at the top of our lungs. I'm sure it doesn't sound good, but I love that we can do it. How many people can you do that in front of?

a great family and a nephew #2 to be born any day now! My family and Chris's family are all amazing people and great supporters.

amazing friends. I don't know what I'd do without them. Besides meeting Chris, they are the best thing that came from college! They make everything okay. It is hard to leave an evening with them without your cheeks and abs hurting from the laughter.

Turbo! Having grown up without pets, I never knew you could get so attached to a dog. He is the greatest dog in the whole world.

my health. So my body doesn't cooperate how I'd like it to, but I'm grateful things aren't worse.

Chris's health. Again, things aren't working as he'd like either, but things could be worse.

my warm house and a perfectly good car. A lot of my students' families are deciding between heat and food this season, and on snowy days there are always a few absent because their cars won't start (despite the fact that they live a block from school, but don't get me started on that one...).

a job and an amazing class. I am still in shock that I only have twenty students this year. This time last year I had 28. 20 is perfect. They are an amazing group and I am thankful for each one of them. They deal with so much crap and they are still about as sweet as humanly possible. If you ever need a barrage of hugs, come to my class. That and they'll most likely sneeze on you -- but we're working on that.

flannel sheets, warm blankets, slippers, synchilla pants, and my new Sheila Moon hoody from Mr. Nice. I like comfy things. A lot.

delicious food and delicious wine. I mentioned hubby is making me dinner. It smells GOOOOOOD (as I typed that, he simultaneously asked me if I was writing that I am thankful for the food he's making, because "it looks gooooood" -- haha, yes I was hubby!).

Amazon Video on Demand. When Chris got hurt, we started watching all episodes of The Office that were available on online Netflix. Season 6 is in progress so is obviously not available on Netflix and NBC deletes the new episodes after a few weeks (and we are far too spotty of TV watchers to see it when it's actually on). We went into The Office withdrawl. We were sad. Then last night I discovered Amazon Video on Demand. The $2.00 an episode is well-worth the happiness of being able to catch up on the new season. We were giddy and dancing with excitement when we discovered it. Yes, we're giant nerds.

grad school. I know, it's not fun, but I guess I should be thankful for it, right? One day it will make me more money, afterall. More money = more comfy things.

Okay, I think that's all I can come up with at the moment. I hope everyone out in bloggerland has a great Thanksgiving!

I Spy...

2009-11-22T15:56:00.008-07:00

Today the weather and lack of imminent homework lead me to a wonderful SS ride outside for a few hours.

The best part? On my ride I found an endangered species!

This is the most unusual species, pretty common around these parts not too long ago, but unseen lately. It is known to fly south in the summer and rumors have it that it is flying north in the winter. It primarily resides in Colorado, although its roots can be traced back to the midwest and even back to New York. It is also suuuuuuper cute!

It is complete with gray claws...

...a blue butt...

...a blue and white head...

...and speedy paws.

It even follows the path of the whale!

I'm happy it is back!

But shhhhhh, don't tell the doctors :)

Back in the SSaddle again

2009-11-14T13:06:00.008-07:00

Today I rode my single speed again after many many months.
Hubby took many many hours yesterday to put it back together for me (some parts, including the wheels, are shared with my Frankendoo bike which was my primary summer ride). So many hours in fact, that he managed to forget to eat all day. I got home yesterday to a spiffed up, shiny bike ready for me to ride. Unfortunately it was also snowing really hard at the moment, so I had to wait until today to try it out.

I've ridden the trainer ONCE in the last six weeks.

And before that I'd ridden my bike ONCE since Chequamegon.

Yes.

Pathetic.

So today's ride was ultra painful but supremely fun.

After I got over the guilty feeling of being able to go ride outside while hubby is stuck to ride the trainer, I put on a lot of clothes and my new lobster gloves and headed out into the 35 degree weather. Today's destination: the good old dogpark loop by our house. The back area has been closed since June because of the plague (!) but now it is finally open again. I missed it.

We found my lobsters on super sale at Bicycle Village a few months ago. They are awesome. I can safely say, for one of the few times in my life, that my hands were hot. I'm in love.

The single speed was great. I only tried to shift a few times :)

I'm sure I'll get used to it again soon.

The best part about today's ride? For a few minutes there, I actually felt like everything is going to be alright. That's a good feeling.

Moving forward...

2009-11-11T11:07:00.005-07:00

is easier said than done.

Well, we're officially at the "trying game" again. Doing what worked last time plus an added shot in the butt the other night = a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride.

One second I feel hopeful and positive, the next I am in tears. It's ridiculous and I have to blame the hormones. Otherwise I'd have to blame myself and that's not nearly as much fun.

We did make the best of the shot-giving though. Chris had to learn to mix up the drugs, assemble the needle, and then shoot me up. It was pretty hilarious trying to figure it all out, complete with a target on my butt and everything. This time we took pictures. If we have to do it again next month, there will most certainly be video. It's that funny. I've never seen Chris so nervous! Luckily for me, I hardly felt a thing -- until the next few days of course, when I feel as if I've grown an extra sore cheek to sit on.

Yes, too much information.

I know.

But that's my life right now.

And I'm okay with that.

In other news, I managed to force myself onto the trainer the other night for a half hour. I've had six weeks off the bike completely, despite the beautiful fall weather and a serious need to burn off some pent up emotion. Between work, two grad classes, a gimpy husband, and hundreds of other things on my to-do list, I've hardly had time to even think about the bike. Plus, it's hard to motivate yourself to exercise and stay healthy when you know that no matter what you do, your body won't cooperate to do the one thing it should be able to do. All of those factors combined equals a few dusty bikes around the house. I know I need to ride though. I know I need to get back to my normal routine. It will help SO much. So I'm working my way back into it. A ride on Monday and hopefully a few more easy spins as the week progresses and hopefully I'll be back to doing what I enjoy and feeling slightly more normal. I am even getting excited to hopefully start up my bike/bus commuting again next week.

Chris is excited to do his first short trainer session tonight after breaking his ankle. I'm excited for him to be able to get back to his own routine and building up some of those lost muscles in the process. He's doing great hobbling around on one crutch after Monday's appointment. He's putting weight on the foot in the boot and I can tell he is starting to feel a little more like himself. He joined me on our Kinder field trip to the zoo yesterday and he did an awesome job hobbling after me and three of my students all morning.

We were both so tired last night that we ate dinner, sat down to watch TV, and were both fast asleep on the couch within an hour. Around 7:30 we decided to move up to bed. Pretty pathetic for a couple who is used to climbing 14ers on the weekend and riding bikes almost every week night.

Oh how things change.

We'll get back though. We're both moving forward toward getting out from what is holding each of us down. We are both hiking up snowy slopes, taking two steps forward and then sliding back another before willing ourselves to move on and do it again.

Thank you hubby, for joining me on our slippery journey, wherever it happens to take us. And thanks to whoever actually reads this blog for putting up with my whine fests while we get through this crappy time. I can't wait to start having more fun adventures to blog about again!

And...

2009-11-03T21:37:00.007-07:00

Since I can't stand to have bad news constantly taking up my blog space (as I recover from my first lovely bought of strep... that ruined my fall break...).

I bring you...

A dog with a buffalo on his head!

And...

A very Plesko Picnic!

(yes, our bed now serves as a bed, a table, a couch, and the perfect spot for catching up on all episodes of The Office in instant-Netflix)

And...

The inventor of the snowball!

(discovered when one cute dog took his ball into the snow, rolled it around, then pranced proudly as he showed off his new invention)

Finally...

The token "awwwwwwww" shot!

This weekend is supposed to be beautiful. I hope to be healthy and reunite with my pretty pretty singlespeed. I have not touched my bike in almost 6 weeks. That's not good. Not good at all.

Roller coaster

2009-10-09T17:07:00.003-06:00

I'm usually not an "oh, poor me" kind of person, but seriously, enough is enough.

There are two ways to look at every situation and I am trying my hardest to look on the bright side.

My new typical response for "how are things?" is: Life has been better but it could be a lot worse.

I'm grateful for what I have. I may have lost something a few Mondays ago, but this last Monday I nearly lost the person that means more to me than anything in the whole world.

I have been thankful every second since that I didn't.

Heal up my sweet love...

"No matter the size of the mountain you and me will be side by side, ain't life and love one big roller coaster ride..."

High highs and low lows

2009-10-01T21:17:00.002-06:00

So, I have to preface this blog by saying it will be sappy, emotional, and probably far more personal than any of you care to read.

But I have to write it.

As I find myself trying to pull out of a very dark hole, Chris encouraged me to write a blog about it. Writing seems to be a way for me to put my thoughts down and release the burden of holding on to them and... you know what?... that can't be a bad thing.

I've eluded to our fertility struggles on the blog before, but to make a long story short: we've been trying to get pregnant for a little over two and a half years. We've gone through plenty of stuff -- none too interesting or new to most people. This past month was a little more intense, requiring daily blood draws that made me end up feeling like some sort of weird human pin cushion most of the time. In the end though, it all seemed worth it when Chris and I saw a VERY faint positive on the pregnancy test last week. We both were cautiously optimistic as I headed off for yet another blood draw and then a whole day of waiting for the results. As I checked my email at the REI Starbucks between a school conference and grad class, I got the news we've waited so long to hear. Not only was I pregnant, but my numbers were labeled as "excellent". While I've always hoped to give Chris the good news in some creative fashion, I found myself mis-dialing our home phone number on the cell phone (and then mumbling something unintelligible to Chris once I finally got it right) outside the Denver REI store. Not so creative, but exciting nonetheless.

Everything was great. I immediately found myself worried that somehow this wonderful news would turn bad -- but that's my personality. Somehow along the road of my life, I found it "easier" to temper excitement with a little pessimism. That way I can't get too disappointed in the end. However, after a celebratory Starbucks date in the morning with Chris, I was driving to work and saw a church sign that said "worry is the thief of joy". It seemed oddly appropriate and I decided right then and there to not let worry ruin all the fun of the news that we had waited so long for. For the next few days, both of us were about as happy as two people can get. I, at least, felt like I was walking on a cloud. Suddenly 2.5 years of worry and pressure lifted and everything seemed worth any struggles we had gone through.

It's amazing how quickly everything can come crashing down.

After another blood draw and waiting for the news that everything was on track and good, Chris met me at work (rather than meeting me at the climbing gym as planned) with some terrible news. My "numbers" had plummeted and we lost the baby.

Now, as I have come to realize in the last few days, this is very common. In fact, everyone you talk to has either been through it or knows someone that's been through it -- and we know several people that have been through even worse.

Somehow, though, that doesn't make it any easier.

I have never felt so incredibly empty and horrible.

Instead of calling our family with good news, we had to call with "well, we had good news, BUT..."

That's not fun.

That night the horrible cramps and bleeding started.

That's also not fun.

At all.

There's nothing like that lovely physical pain to constantly remind you of what's going on.

It was a horrible night for both me and Chris. A night I get nauseous at just thinking about. I can now officially pinpoint THE worst day of my life.

As the days have gone on, things have started to look up. I can make it through the day without any major meltdowns. We even got out to the climbing gym last night to burn off a little frustration and pent up energy. The overwhelming feeling of trying to make it through the day isn't quite as bad.

I feel like I've been pretty strong through the whole fertility process. I've tried to see the good aspects -- for example, it completely challenges me in a way that nothing ever has. I can do everything right and still fail... but through that I've learned a lot about myself, a lot about Chris, and a lot about us as a couple. I appreciate those lessons.

While this is one lesson I could have, and wish I would have, lived without, I am starting to accept that things will get better. I still wonder if letting go of the worry allowed me to have at least a few days of total bliss, or if a little worrying could have ultimately tempered the shock and sadness. I think, though, that it was better to feel those few days of unexplainable joy than never to have felt it at all (I always thought that saying was cheesy and stupid, but now I get it). I can't believe the enormous support that our friends and family have shown us... and I can't imagine anyone going through this without it. I have the greatest husband in the whole world -- one who can put aside his own grief to focus on making sure I am okay in my darkest moments... I only hope I can do the same.

We are both still, undeniably crushed over what this week has handed us. Food doesn't quite taste as good, the sunrise is a little less pretty, and rather than walking on a cloud I feel like I am dragging an elephant around.

But we'll make it through this.

And one day soon, I hope to make a more happy blog...

Chequame-what?

2009-09-23T19:56:00.011-06:00

This weekend Brett, Scott, Chris and I went to Wisconsin for the Chequamegon Fat Tire 40.

The fun was nearly never-ending.

We left Denver on Wednesday night after work, packed into Brett's new E.

We drove WAY further into the night than planned because of some sort of interesting farm convention happening in Nebraska, causing all of the hotels to be booked up. Once we finally got settled into a dive of a hotel in Seward, we slept for a few hours before getting out of there as quickly as possible in the morning.
(The apples Scott brought us from his parents' apple trees in Iowa were by far the best I've ever had)

In the early evening we made it to Eau Claire, Wisconsin where we met up with one of Brett's friends and got to cruise around on some awesome single track. The riding in Wisconsin looked to be just my kind of riding -- no hills, no rocks, just smooth swoopy funness. I hoped this is what the course would be like on Saturday. Unfortunately we were racing the setting sun and the vicious peloton of mosquitos so we didn't get very many pictures of the ride.

We had some good burgers in Eau Claire, stayed in a decent hotel, and got back on the road for a few hours on Friday. Soon we found ourselves in Hayward, Wisconsin -- our home for the next whoppin' day and a half. We were treated to standing in the world's largest Muskee (yes, I'm sure there's a big market for those, making the competition stiff).

After many too many minutes of trying to find somewhere out in the woods, we settled into the cottage on the lake and headed back to the car to drive to race registration a half hour away.

I forgot the camera, but registration was quite the sight. Chris has me used to these underground races where "registration" consists of a few beers and a two-minute prerace meeting. Cheq's race registration had 2800 people piled into some sort of hotel or ski lodge -- one line for getting your race packet, one for getting your ankle bracelet, one for your shwag bag, and one for testing your ankle bracelet. I have to hand it to the race organization though -- the registration was streamlined and quick moving. Everyone seemed really nice and happy to be there. After I went through the first line behind Scott, the lady at the table made the comment "Wow! There's two of you from Colorado in a row! What are the odds?" Ha, I had to laugh at that one. Shocking!

Brett, being the race veteran, was grilled by me and Scott throughout the night. We wanted to know EVERYTHING about the course. Scott and I had never ridden in Wisconsin (other than our hour jaunt in Eau Claire the day before) and we were both quite concerned that we might die. Chris, also having never ridden in Wisconsin, was cool as a cucumber. Getting over a nasty sickness and feeling pretty terrible, but cool as a cucumber.

We spent the evening scraping off the hoards of dead bugs from the front of our bikes, eating a tasty meal cooked by the chef of the house, and organizing race food and clothes for the next morning. There was a general air of stressfulness over where people would start, how early they should get their bikes to the start to get a good position, etc. Lucky for Chris and Brett, they had preferred start and didn't have to worry about getting there early to be in the front, and luckily for them, Scott and I didn't care AT ALL where we started in the group. That meant no one in our group had to get up at the butt crack of dawn to place bikes upside down in the middle of the main street.

The next morning found Chris up early making Brett, Scott, and I some pancakes and eggs. Worried about that northern Wisconsin weather, I was fully prepared to freeze at the start of the race. When I stepped outside to load my bag into the car, I was pleasantly surprised to find downright WARM weather! Who knew that existed up north in the fall (says the Colorado native)? We did our prerace activities, placing Scott and I's bikes in the middle/back of the quickly growing field of upside down bikes. We finalized clothes, food, water, and nervous chit chat about how a mountain bike course in Wisconsin could not possibly have 4,000 ft of climbing in it... even if it is 40 miles.

Before we knew it the race was about to start and Scott and I found our bikes. We chatted it up with the others around us -- most of them laughing when they heard we were from Colorado and actually concerned about the course. I guess being from Colorado means we're hardcore. Scott and I threw each other "haha, little do they know" glances and were soon off with the crowd. The sound of 2700 riders clipping into clipless pedals can never be replecated. I love that sound. The click, click, click, click sound is strangely comforting. The sound of 2700 wheels spinning down the road was like sitting in the middle of a vicious pack of swarming bees. Despite the start being the part I was most worried about (I know our group can stay on a line for 3 miles on a road, but you can't control the things 2696 other people will do). Turns out the start was pretty tame. No screaming crashes like I was warned about. There were stops and starts along the way, but overall it was fine.

Since 40 miles is a long way, and frankly would make from a long, fairly boring race report, here are a few memories, insights, and observations about the course:

1) The rolling grassy hills of the Berky were painful. I'm not used to miles and miles of rolling hills. I felt totally and completely retarded trying to ride them. I was constantly in the wrong gear. I do have to say that I quickly learned the benefits of not touching your brakes on the downhills. Why give up all that precious free speed?

2) Despite my previous statement, I learned in this race that I can climb. Really. Amazing actually how this suddenly came to me. I would climb past people walking up the hills ALL THE TIME. It was almost funny. On the one *big* climb of the course, I rode over half of it while strings of people hiked up the side. I rode everything else. And I wasn't even out of breath. At all.

3) Connecting to number two (I'm all about transitions today), breathing at sea level is significantly easier. People would be huffing and puffing and I was able to carry on complete (although often one-sided) conversations with those around me. I'm not sure my breathing ever reached beyond a pretty normal level. My legs, on the other hand, were hurting pretty good almost immediately! Strange.

4) Even though I've never actually done it before, I was really good at taking the water hand up on the fly. Must be all that 24 Hours of Moab practice being on the other side of the hand up.

5) Chris, despite being sick, feeling generally crappy, and being largely untrained, still beat me by an hour and a half. Humbling.

6) I only beat Scott by 8 minutes. Neither of us knew the other was that close. Otherwise it would've been a lot of fun to ride together.

7) Thank goodness fellow cyclo-blogger Vito warned me of the last 8 miles. "Relentless hills" is an understatement. It wasn't just hills, it was rollers. And we all know I hate the rollers.

8) Fighting a cold for the first 3 weeks of school, then doing a hard 40 mile race, gives the cold a considerable edge. My head and sinuses felt absolutely horrible the night after the race and I ended up sleeping a full 12 hours, starting at 7:45 pm, through the drunken banter upstairs. the sleep helped a lot though and I felt a lot better the next day.

9) I'm glad I took time now and then to look around. The leaves were spectacular in Wisconsin and they were especially pretty on a few parts of the course. Back at the cabin I picked 20 big red leaves to bring home to my students. For once I can teach them about the colors of fall without them looking at me with skepticism as all they see in Denver is green, brown, and yellow.

I think that's it. We took Sunday and Monday to drive home and Tuesday was back to work. It was hard returning to the real-world after a blissful 5 1/2 days of friends, fun, eating, laughing, and riding.

Thanks to Brett for all of the driving. Chris and I got to hang in the back and relax the whole trip. I'm not sure that has ever happened and it was lovely.

(P.S I finished the race in a relatively slow 3 hours and 51 minutes... although this was as good as I could do given my current fitness, so I'm pleased. Next year it'd be fun to go back and gun for the 3-3.5 hour mark -- easily do-able with a little work. At least I'll show good improvement!)

Chequamegon or bust!

2009-09-13T18:48:00.002-06:00

On Wednesday after work, Scott, Brett, Chris and I leave for Wisconsin for the Chequamegon 40.

Since I will most likely run out of time, motivation, and energy to make a pre-race post between now and Wednesday, here it is.

I'm ill prepared, under trained, and super excited.

I originally planned to make this the "focus" of my biking season, really training and preparing for it.

Unfortunately, work, grad school, and throwing a lot of mental energy into the fertility issues have managed to change those plans. (I know, excuses excuses -- but what good are excuses if you don't use them when you need them?)

I still think I'll do alright though, and here's why:

1) My bike is awesome. The squeaky ladybug should strike fear in those around me and they will simply move out of the way and let me past.
2) While the race is UP in Wisconsin, it is also WAY DOWN in Wisconsin. There will be so much oxygen in the air that I'm sure my body will sprout an extra lung. That can only help.
3) Our new team kits are sewn together with magical threads and there is a hidden rocket in the back pocket.
4) It's 40 miles. Only 40 miles. That's nothing. That's what I tell myself at least.

So, in all, piece of cake.

No problem.

I can't wait!!

I am a...

2009-09-12T16:09:00.003-06:00

PC?

Gasp!

Welcome to Pinky, my cute little Toshiba mini-notebook:
An investment in the next few years of grad school from my wonderful hubby.

I am a Mac person, always have and always will be (and going back to Windows is not easy).

But this is a pretty cool little computer.

And yes, as a mini "notebook" it is already lighter than my actual school notebook that houses gazillions of articles about language, literacy, and culture.

It's really cute too.

Thanks for the wonderful surprise hubby.

Doing homework just got a bit more fun!

Dirty house

2009-09-07T17:02:00.008-06:00

I clean when I'm stressed.

I think I get that trait from my mom, who would always break out the dusting and vacuuming when the Broncos would be blowing a game.

My house has been dirty.

Now that's a good sign in my house!

School has been going great. I have 17 well-behaved, sweet, and generally knowledgeable kids. I've certainly paid my dues with difficult kids in the last few years and it is a whole different world having a class without any major issues. I am starting to remember why I love teaching. (I'm really not just a fair-weather teacher, it just takes a lot of energy and tolerance that wears thin to have the challenging ones -- and yes it is often more rewarding to teach them than the 'easy' kids).

I finished the climbing part of my cute mountain bulletin board:

Now I just need some clouds. The kids love it and it looks really cute!

I am taking a full-time load of graduate classes this semester -- one online and one weekly class downtown. The classes so far have their ups and downs, and it is a lot of work. I'm getting through it though and I'm sure the semester will be over before I know it. I wouldn't call the classes stressful, just time consuming.

Even though work and class haven't been too bad so far, it sure was nice to have this three day weekend.

Friday night after work, Chris and I caravanned down to the Tabaguach/Shavano trailhead to park the Es and get a nice night's sleep before our big ride on Saturday. The views in the morning were spectacular!

E camping is the best kind of camping at the end of a long week.

Beautiful 14ers views!

Saturday, Brett, Chris, and I met Erik and Michelle at the Poncho Springs Visitor Center to organize our shuttle vehicles to go up to the top (the trail starts up at the top of Monarch Pass at 11,700 ft then climbs and drops back down to Poncho Springs about 34 miles later).

Our self-shuttle was a good idea until the keys for the finish car ended up in one of the start cars. Luckily bikers are nice and someone gave Chris and Brett a ride up the pass to get the cars.

Four bikes. Two 29ers. Two with front wheels on. Lots more room. Elements rock.

I was glad I had my camera!

Getting ready to roll.

The trail is a classic and I can see why. The rolling and varied terrain keeps the trail exciting. There is plenty of climbing for a shuttle route and since you are riding at 12,000 ft, the burning lungs add an interesting challenge. The down hills were great fun -- until we hit the sloppy mud and wet roots at least.

Our new team kits made a glowing debut. We got a lot of compliments on the trail.

All smiles today!

We spent much of our first few hours stopping to take pictures. Amazing views!

We spent a decent amount of time riding above tree line.

"Look fast!"

Chris, Brett, and Erik were speedy!

Chris might be getting his bike-smile back!!!!!!!!

The peanut-butter mud made things interesting!

Frankendoo takes a rest on the Rainbow Trail while I wait to the boys' pictures.

One of the best shots of the day.

The Rainbow trail had a lot of steep ups and more loose ickiness than the rest of the trail. Chris, as usual, rocked everything on his rigid single speed. People would watch him from the side of the trail with their jaws open as he made it up some of the steep climbs. I had a hard time walking them and he would give it one good grunt and be dancing up. He hasn't really ridden his bike in a while and it seems like he never put it down.

The end of the ride consists of a 35-40 mph coast down highway 285. Without a big ring on my bike I joined Chris in the "really spun out" category and we enjoyed the ride. I did wonder a few times if MTB tires are rated to go 35 mph for 10 minutes on hot pavement. They survived though!

What an absolutely spectacular ride. I felt good all day up until the last five miles or so on the trail. By that point I was getting pretty tired -- having been out on the trail for 6 hours so far. After the cruise down the highway we regrouped in the parking lot and there may have been some napping happening while Brett and Chris got the cars from the top.

To see the rest of the pictures from the wonderful ride, go here: http://picasaweb.google.com/marniplesko/MonarchCrestTrail?feat=directlink

The delightful weekend got cut a bit shorter than I would've preferred because I had to be back for a blood draw at 7 am Sunday morning. We all ended up driving home Saturday night instead of having one more night of camping.

On Sunday while Chris was climbing with Brett, I caught up on some homework and... yes ... cleaned the house. But thankfully not out of stress, just out of necessity.

It was a beautiful weekend.

Dry Eyes

2009-08-20T19:53:00.002-06:00

Well, hallelujah!

No crying.

No screaming.

No running out of the room in hysterics...

And the kids did pretty well too!

The first day is down, over, done with.

Phew.

Let's hope day 2 goes as smoothly.

Revisiting Reality

2009-08-18T18:04:00.011-06:00

Summer break 2009 is officially over.

And it has been over for more than a week.

As I think back to our wonderful summer, I can't help but feel completely satisfied and happy with all that went on.

The summer began with preparing for, blog-updating for, watching, and generally obsessing over Chris's record-setting Divide race. In the process, I got to both meet and reunite with many cyber-friends from the bike-blogosphere.

After that great adventure, Chris and I embarked on some adventures together.

We hiked five 14ers together...

biked up one...

climbed a rock or two...

learned to flip in the sand...

rode amongst the flowers...

took the best kiddos in the world rock climbing in the gym...

ate some great meals...

and napped some good naps.

Now that I am back to preparing for getting the Kinders, I am trying to carry a bit of my summer experiences into the classroom:

This will get much cuter in the next week with Wish Clouds and pictures of my students pretending to hike up the mountain, connected by a climbing rope made of yarn. Whether it makes any impact on them or not, it is sure to remind me constantly that these kids face challenges every day that pale in comparison to mine. Either way, I have made it a personal goal (yes honey, I have set a goal for myself for once) to keep this class feeling connected to each other and me like a team climbing up the toughest of mountains.

(As a side note, I have also made goals to actually be ORGANIZED -- the only way I foresee not losing my mind amid teaching full time, participating in an extra program at school that requires a lot of additional commitments within the classroom, and attending grad school *full time* by taking six credits -- and PREPARED -- yes, being consistent with my planning certainly slacks as the stress rises.)

I am also looking forward to a Labor Day weekend in Salida riding with the team, a long weekend in the upper throws of Wisconsin for the Chequamegon 40 in about a month (which, at this point, I simply hope to survive well enough to enjoy the rest of the weekend), and hopefully some monthly game nights and hikes with the girls.

Thinking I sound surprisingly ambitious and optimistic considering the kids start on Thursday?

Did I mention my class list currently has 13 students. 13!!!!?????!!!!

Compared to my typical class of 28, I can deal with 13 (even though more will certainly enroll and start a day to several months late).

Ah.

Reality might not bite so much.

Long overdue

2009-08-16T16:28:00.005-06:00

August 6, 2004:

August 6/7, 2009:

Five years of adventures.

I can't even imagine the stories we'll have in another five years.

Love you hubby.

Longs Peak: Some Lessons in Life

2009-08-01T12:24:00.018-06:00

Yesterday, Chris and I completed 14er number twenty by climbing Longs Peak.

Longs Peak is one of the few 14ers that is visible and recognizable from almost anywhere in the Denver/Boulder area (you actually see Long's close neighbor Mount Meeker, but the tippy top is Long's summit). It looks huge and out of place.

Since it is so visible and close to Denver, many tourists, Coloradans, climbers, hikers, and old people in sweats alike are drawn to this mountain. By 3 am on any given day the huge parking lot is full and people are parked down the road. 3 am! Eww.

The traditional route on Longs, the Keyhole Route, is classified as class 3 (hiking in Colorado ranges from class 1 -- easy walking -- to class 5 -- where you start to do real rock climbing with ropes). Class 3 is not anything to be taken lightly, yet the most unlikely people seem to make it to the summit of Longs everyday. The length of the hike is no joke either -- the Keyhole route being 15 miles round trip. That's a long day. Hence the full parking lot at 3 am. Did I mention: ewww?

I have been nervous to climb Longs since I first learned about it. The exposure, length, and really early wake-up time made me nervous. The Keyhole Route, despite its thousands of unacclimatized ascenders, sounded bad. Over the last year and a half, I have slowly come to realize that the route itself wouldn't be so terrible -- exposed, maybe, but not anything I couldn't handle. But it would certainly be crowded and relying on other people not to screw up and inadvertently take me down with them is a skill I don't really possess.

If you remember, Chris and I are on a mission to complete all of Colorado's 14ers as a couple. So, no matter how many excuses I could find, I needed to do this mountain. I decided back in May that I needed to do it this summer. I have had enough of seeing the big peak looming in front of me on my commute home from work each day, knowing that it scares me and had thus far gotten the best of me mentally.

So yesterday I found myself waking up to the alarm at 1:15 am. Ewww. Seriously, 1:15. As I got ready in the bathroom I tried to decide whether, since I hated being up at this hour, it makes me an anti-morning-person or an anti-night-person. 1:15 am really qualifies as both. It was early and I can honestly say I was not a terribly pleasant person to be around.

So by 2 am we were loaded in the car and Chris (being quite perky, thus qualifying himself as both a night person and a morning person) drove us up to Rocky Mountain National Park. I felt pretty horrible, dizzy, nauseous, and tired to boot. My current drug of choice, Clomid, leaves me suffering from all sorts of crazy side-effects every month. This month seems to be dizziness. Oh goody.

But, as I said, I've made enough excuses not to do this peak, and I thought that any mention of my crappy feeling would only makes things worse. So I sucked it up and closed my eyes through the twisty, turny road that leads to Longs. Around 3 am we drove through dozens upon dozens of cars parked in the lot and down the road. Chris found us an up front parking space and by 3 we were headed up the trail.

Chris seems to be recovering well from his Tour Divide craziness and I've noticed that his fitness is not only coming back to where it was before he left, it seems nearly out of control. He has been filling his non wife-mandated-rest-days with high altitude adventures. So, needless to say, even at 3 am on a dark morning, he bounded up the Longs trail like a deer. One second I was right behind him and the next had my headlamp shining on nothing but trees.

And other hikers.

We stopped counting when we'd passed 50 other hikers just in the first two hours before the Boulderfield. Amazing. Groups ranging from kids to the elderly. Lightweight hikers to overweight hikers. Gortex to cotton. Ski pants to sweat pants. Headlamps to flashlights. The range of people on the trail really spanned the population. Many of those slower hikers were stopped within the first half mile to catch their breath and rest. I quickly started to realize why many trip reports have people taking upwards of 16 hours to complete this trail.

Chris would stop and wait for me now and then, but I was really poking and he was really flying, and the combination wasn't a good partner hiking experience. Every 14er that we hike gives me times where I get into the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other mentality. At least for a short section. For Longs, I had this from the very beginning. Whether it is the pills or the fatigue from climbing three 14ers in the last two weeks or just that it was "one of those days", I can't be sure.

Then the wind started.

That helped.

Not.

It got really windy. Windy enough that the gusts would come and I would have to lean into it on my poles just to keep from being toppled. Honestly, any other mountain and I would've bagged it right there. But two things kept me really motivated: 1) I did not want to have to wake up that early again to climb this peak. Ever. and 2) If the zillions of other hikers could make it up in the conditions, I certainly wasn't going to be the one idiot who turned around and passed them all again on the way back down. I care way too much about what other people think and they'd certainly be laughing on the inside as I walked past them back to the comfort of the car.

So we kept going and eventually we made it to the boulder field as the sun started to rise and my spirits started to lift. I could finally SEE Longs Peak and it is amazing what a little visual motivation can do for your mood. I've heard about the boulder field many many times and it was fun to see it in person. There are a lot of boulders. Quite big ones. We stopped for a bathroom break (yes, there are even bathrooms there somehow) and to eat some cheese danishes. I could stomach about half of one before throwing in the towel. We put on our climbing harnesses and...

climbing harnesses?

Oh yeah. Between being scared to do the class 3 Keyhole route and our actual hike, somehow we decided to climb the old Cables route instead. Class? 5.4. Rock climbing.

I didn't want to just bag this peak, I wanted to be able to give it a big f-you on my way down.

Yeah baby.

Anyway, we put on the harnesses and some extra clothes (ok, all of my extra clothes -- base layer, R1 balaclava hoody, windshirt, down coat, rain pants, two pairs of gloves, hat and 3 layers of hoods -- minus my rain jacket. I was saving that as one last safety piece in case it got even colder, which it eventually did...).

We hiked past the boulder field and to the base of our climb. We boulder hopped for a while before coming to the first of a few snow fields that we needed to cross. When Chris had done this climb previously he crossed these with crampons and ice axes. Neither of us had crampons this time, but we did have the ice axes. Chris went up ahead and kicked and cut steps and I followed in his footsteps. It wasn't so bad for me, since the footsteps were already there, but it was hard work for Chris. And I appreciate that he was willing to do it for me.

Eventually we got to the rock where we had to rope up and climb. Chris would lead, placing a scant amount of gear now and then to protect a fall, then he would find an old eye-bolt and stop to belay me up. This route used to be protected by fixed cables as the main route up Longs. One day someone wised up and took them down, forcing the less experienced to either summit via the Keyhole or not at all. Luckily for us, they left the bolts which made great anchors on the way up and down the route. The climbing wasn't too hard. Except for one major factor: ice.

Yep, July 31st and we were contending with freshly frozen ice on the route.

Verglass to use the fancy word for it.

Essentially, it was a thin layer of ice with water running underneath. So the route was both icy and really wet. Really, really wet. And really, really cold wet. That turned a 5.4 walk in the park into a much more mentally and physically taxing climb for both of us. Pretty soon our gloves and feet were soaked and we were really cold. I added my last precious layer -- the rain jacket. I wouldn't say it helped very much. But at least it added yet another hood to the system. Yep, now I had five hood layers and a climbing helmet on my head.

At one belay station Chris asked me if I wanted to turn around. I told him no. Then he climbed up and I quickly changed my mind. Honestly, if he was within earshot, I would've called him back down and bailed. I was cold, wet, dizzy, nauseous, and cold. Fortunately, he wasn't in ear shot so I bucked up and kept going.

The climbing was remarkably fun. I didn't freak out and I didn't cry... pretty standard protocol for an outdoor climbing experience for me... so this was unusual. I had a lot of fun climbing the route. Despite the wind (it was relentless) and the cloud cover (turns out the sunrise was only a sort of cruel tease as it didn't really show its true beauty and heat until much later), we wanted the summit. We watched the clouds blow on and off the summit at a faster rate than I have ever seen clouds move. At the top of the technical section, Chris coiled the rope, shoved it in his bag, and we did the final rock hopping to the summit.

We made it!

I have heard that the summit is HUGE. That's true. It was pretty flat and big. Amazing. We met an awesome retired couple that had just completed their 54th 14er in 52 days. They rock. We tried to shove down some food, but even Chris had no appetite (gasp!). We took our summit picture and headed back down.

Depending on the minute, the summit view would sometimes look like this:

Sometimes it would look like this:
(Same view!!)

Some rock hopping down got us back to the top eye-bolt and then the fun really started.

Rather than hiking down, which is always a way bigger pain than it sounds, we got to rappel! Yes! Sweeeeeet! Not only that, but we got simul-rappel the route -- meaning we each went down on one side of the rope and rappelled together. I was nervous at first but it was actually a blast.

We rappelled eye-bolt to eye-bolt, did some very interesting down climbing, and were quite quickly back at the snow field. We hiked around it this time, stopping to admire The Diamond (the picturesque huge vertical face on Longs) and some climbers climbing it.

Below: Our route is up to right, up the snow then straight up and left to the summit.

By now we were tired but much perkier. We made the technical summit, safely got down the scary parts, and were pretty close to being back to the nice path leading back to the car. The sun also decided to come out, so we quickly shed layer upon layer upon layer. We smiled, laughed, chatted about nothing, and finally seemed to really let ourselves enjoy the experience.

We stopped in the boulder field to enjoy the view, pack the layers, and eat some Combos and Reeces peanut butter bar (umm, yummm). Our relaxation was short lived as the clouds turned from breezy to building and we knew a thunder/rain storm was eminent. We got our stuff together and started to bust a move back down the trail to the car. When the thunder started rolling when we neared tree-line, our trot turned to a jog and an occasional run. We got wet, but safely back to the car at 3:30 pm on the dot.

13.5 hours after leaving the car.

A LONG day (how appropriate), but an adventure that I'm really proud of and excited that we pulled off.

Sure, altitude probably makes me a little dramatic, but on the way back down I realized that Longs reinforced a few of life's lessons for me:

1) Commitment: I had a lot of excuses to bail but I didn't let them overtake me and I stuck with the plan. Nothing was really physically wrong, there was no eminent danger... my mind was trying to wuss out. I committed to doing this climb and I was going to do it. And I did.

2) Trust: When you are climbing anytime, and especially around 13,500 ft, you have to trust your partner to do what he needs to do safely. When you are rappelling together, you have to trust the other person to not screw up. My one piece of marital advice? Do an activity like climbing where you have to literally put your life in your spouse's hands. That'll teach you to rely on each other in stressful situations.

3) Persistence: If you keep one foot moving in front of the other, eventually you'll get where you want to go. It might not be as pleasant of an experience as you had hoped, but you'll get there. I needed this reminder and I needed it now. This hike refreshed my resolve to keep moving forward in a few frustrating aspects of life that were leaving me drained in so many ways.

4) Laugh at yourself: During a particularly rough down climb on the way back down, I found myself lowering myself down the rock on my belly, shoving my shirts/coats around my neck and my pants and harness up as far as they could go. This was after getting a knee stuck in a crack and taking a few minutes to figure out how to get it out -- only to get it out just as I was about to tell Chris he may have to amputate. As I slid slowly down the rock (holding onto the hold above me), Chris guided my feet down to the next stable footing. I had to laugh. How can you not be in that position and laugh at yourself. Some things are just to ridiculous to pass up.

5) Push past fear: This mountain really scared me. I'm not sure exactly why. Especially now that I've done one of the harder routes in really crappy conditions. But it scared me. When I reached the summit, I found myself tearing up for the first time on a summit. I realized how much this meant to me to pull off. Ah, relief.

Thanks to Chris for another great adventure one week before our 5th wedding anniversary!

(Oh yeah, I did an experiment on the way back down on the merits of hiking poles. The left hand did not ever have a hiking pole, the right hand one the whole time. See the difference? I love my poles!)

Wild Weekend

2009-07-28T20:45:00.005-06:00

After completing two more fourteeners on Thursday and finding a much needed Starbucks in Pueblo, we headed down to La Veta (waaaaaaaay down south in Colorado) for our friend Scott's wedding.

We originally planned to camp in the Hotelement with Turbo, but after finding a half-open cabin that allowed dogs (with our friends Craig and Emily who own their own golden retriever named Turbo), we gladly settled in to this wee little cabin:

The cabin itself was a nice little size, but our closet that housed our twin bed for the weekend was a bit cramped between two adults and a full sized Golden. It was cozy enough though but we won't take our queen sized bed for granted again any time soon!

The cabin had this awesome rock climbing area right behind it. We brought the gear and had a really fun afternoon of setting up a new route. Chris did some great route finding and we weaseled our way up this rock and over a difficult roof to the top. Finding a way down through the trees and bushes was another adventure in itself!

After rock climbing, we threw on some clean clothes and hustled over to the rehearsal BBQ.
The next day, Chris and I kept it pretty low key and hung out on the porch reading books most of the day. Before we knew it, he was all spiffed up in his tux and we were ready to watch a beautiful wedding!
I'd say we clean up pretty well!
The wedding was a lot of fun -- hopefully there will be more pictures to come from a friend's camera (including a few photos that document what happens when you take a few engineers, a fire fighter, a kindergarten teacher, and put them alone with some little silicon balls from the center pieces... Let's just say it was quite amusing...)

On Sunday, we went to see the Great Sand Dunes with Erik and Michelle. Chris had never been to this crazy national park and I hadn't been there since my fifth grade trip -- over 18 years ago). The normally HOT tourist attraction was actually quite pleasant with some heavy cloud cover. We were on the lookout for lightning, but never saw any and instead just enjoyed the cooler weather.
The Great Sand Dunes sit at the foot of the San Juan mountains. The contrast between high peaks and endless miles of sand is stunning. Go there if you've never been.
Disclaimer: Chris is really good at backflips. Surprisingly good. At least on a slope. So he immediately found us a good dune and started hucking backflips off of it. He made it look pretty and easy, just as he does everything else, so I decided to give it a try.

Not so easy.

Not so pretty.
Chris essentially had to toss me over backwards. I completed the flip -- more like a back handspring since I put my hands down somewhat -- but then couldn't stop the rotation and ended up on my back in the sand. The good thing about sand is that it is quite forgiving.
I have a great husband who would even break from his hysterical laughing to come help me up. The sand would just pour out of my shorts!
Chris is an acrobat. Very impressive!
Chris and Erik hiked over to a far away dune and wrote us a message. The two ladies on top of the dune with Michelle and I swooned too!
There are so many great pictures from this trip that I'd love to show. I need to put them in a slideshow and then I'll post it. We had an amazing time at the wedding and at the dunes. Many many laughs were had over the weekend and it was great spending time with friends who we only usually get to see on bike rides (which don't really allow for much conversation!).

Congratulations to Scott and Melissa on a beautiful wedding!

Remember these??

2009-07-19T14:19:00.003-06:00

I forgot all about them until a recent trip to Target.

Yes, they are as outstanding as you remember them to be.

Pizzeria Pretzel is my latest obsession.

Yum.

Get some.

You won't regret it.

Summer should never end

2009-07-18T20:06:00.009-06:00

I have many excuses for not blogging.

Although none of them really matter, so I won't go into it.

Instead, here's a bit of what has happened lately...

*I picked up Chris from Antelope Wells, NM shortly into his 19th day of riding the Divide on July 1st. The road he had to finish on was really boring -- even in a car -- I can't even imagine how he did it on a very spun out singlespeed. He ended up finishing the race in 19 days and 21 minutes, setting a new singlespeed course record. I could not be more proud of him.

Having him gone for that long was really hard. I had a lot of things on my intended 'to-do list' that never got anywhere near touched. One might think that having hubby gone for nearly three weeks and no job to keep me busy would open up a lot of time. But, as Chris says, Divide racers are high maintenance -- even in a self-supported race. Any time he'd get anywhere near a town that might possibly have a phone, I would wait like a teenager next to the phone waiting for it to ring. And yes, a few times I picked it up just to make sure it was working and yes, a few times I gave sales calls a few choice words before rudely hanging up. Luckily my friends and family were unbelievably patient with my mood swings -- happy as can be if I just talked to Chris recently, crabby and stressed if I hadn't. But, in the end, it was all 100% completely worth it. What an amazing accomplishment. I think we're both still in shock. The news even came to our house and did a story!

*After bringing Chris home, we essentially ate, slept, and enjoyed each other's company for a while. The hardest part of having a husband home freshly off 19 days of living off candy and gas station food is not falling into his same eating habits. He would eat every hour or two -- usually full meals -- and then snack on anything he could find. He dropped nearly 10 pounds racing the divide, while I gained a few eating junk while he was gone. The napping, however, was good. Really, really good. I love naps. It was fun to bring him to the dark side, even if it was just for a week.

*I went to Eldorado Canyon for the first time to go rock climbing. It was a lot of fun. Different than most stuff I've done, but fun!

*I had my first mountain bike race of the season last weekend -- and my first race as an EXPERT. Yeah, doesn't seem right to me either. It was eh. I felt okay overall, but ended up helping a hurt teammate an hour in and subsequently giving up the race and turning the rest into a chill ride. I wasn't really prepared for 3.5 hours out on the bike though (food/water wise) and ended up puking a few times back at the car from a supposed mega-bonk. That was not awesome. The Winter Park series isn't appealing to me this year for some reason, but I expect to do another race or two to see if I get into it. I am really looking forward to the Chequamegon 40 in September in Wisconsin with some friends, so I should get myself in good enough shape so I don't just keel over and die in that one!

*We hosted a really fun party at the house to celebrate Chris's race. Nearly 30 friends were able to make it. It was fun getting together friends from all sorts of aspects of life in one place. My dad's cousin made an UNBELIEVABLE cake for Chris and Kurt. If you are in the Denver area and need a wedding/other celebration cake (or cookies or pastries or cupcakes apparently), find The Cakehouse. So tasty and beautiful to boot!

*Chris and I had an excellent overnight camping trip to hike Mount Yale this week. Chris has a great write-up about it, complete with lots of pictures! We hope to do another one early this week, and perhaps a twofer early the following week. The wildflowers are out of this world on the 14ers right now because of all of the rain that we've had. We want to squeeze in as many peaks as we can before they remember that this is not normally a rainy state!

*Last night Chris and I went to a great dinner at The Fort. We promised his mom we'd go to a special celebration dinner for the Divide race and we both finally felt up to it last night. Previously, I'm sure one of us would've fallen asleep mid-dinner (ahem... Chris). We've always wanted to go to The Fort in Morrison and it was pretty darn tasty. Thanks for the dinner TMom!!

*Tonight Chris is at a bachelor party, so as the weather finally cooled, I headed out for a little mountain bike ride. I tried the two nearest neighborhood stand-bys and both were closed! The dogpark was closed because of fleas that had been found to have the plague! Who knew a "The Plague" even existed anymore? I thought the closure probably mostly applied to the dogs, but I didn't really want to take the chance that I'd cross the closed sign only to be attacked by rabid plague ridden fleas. So I went over to Standley Lake and tried there, but the trail was closed there also -- not sure why. I would normally have just taken the mountain bike on one of our good 'ol road bike routes since I was already out, but my rear tire was quickly losing air and I really didn't want to mess with a flat. So, I pedaled carefully home, willing to admit when the world doesn't want me out on my bike. Instead, I ate some tasty food and ice cream and I can blog while watching Shrek. Not a terrible backup plan!

My summer break is quickly dwindling down. I have a school training on Tuesday, which seems to mark the beginning of the end. It makes me sad, this has truly be a great summer so far. I'm not ready to go back to the stress and routine of work and grad school (two classes in the fall!) as I feel I have just started to recover from last year. It'll be fun once it gets started, but I'm certainly going to enjoy every second I have left of not working or doing homework. Maybe that'll involve blogging once in a while!

Me, Myself, and I

2009-06-16T15:01:00.006-06:00

Picture from Buffalo Creek ride with Dave Nice, Ed, Spike, and Chris

I've seriously slacked on the blog since school got out. My intention was to start up blogging again once I wasn't so stressed and crabby about school. Turns out, it took a few weeks of decompression to get there (much longer than any previous year of teaching).

My first week off involved sleep, more sleep, and even more sleep. I would sleep in until 11:00 am, eat breakfast, read for an hour, then take a two hour nap, only to go to sleep for the night around 9:00 pm. I was really hoping that wouldn't last the entire summer, causing me to sleep away my precious time off, and luckily a week of that seemed to do the trick. Chris, in an attempt to taper before the Divide, was remarkably understanding and even cashed on a few naps with me.

Last Monday, the 8th, Chris, Jill from Juneau, and I left Denver with the car packed up and pointed toward Montana. We had a nice day of driving and ended up staying for the night in rockin' Great Falls, Montana (which holds some unfavorable memories for me). The next day, we zoomed across the border and were in Banff, Alberta before we knew it. We dropped Jill off where she was staying and Chris and I checked into the same apartment hotel that we stayed in last year. We stocked up on some groceries for the week and settled in for a nice vacation. Over the week in Banff, we visited some unbelievably beautiful places such as Lake Louise:

The Crowfoot Glacier:

and the hot springs (no pictures because our Colorado whiteness in bathing suits could only harm the camera).

We even managed to spot some elk, a porcupine, and a moose-butt. That was exciting!
We also got to have an outstanding dinner on Thursday night, at The Maple Leaf with Joel. Joel lives near Boulder, and despite living so close, it apparently takes us to all be up in Canada to get together! It was fun catching up with him and eating some really good steak!

Before we knew it, Friday was upon us and Chris and I were driving to the YMCA in Banff for the start of Tour Divide 2009! Chris was calm, cool, and collected and ready to head out for his big adventure.

After I kissed him off at the trailhead, I found myself on this seemingly annual trek of driving 18.5 hours from Banff to Denver by myself. This year was a bit easier to drive away from the race start, although not much. As I got going though, I fell into a groove and enjoyed the drive (despite ANOTHER night's stay in Great Falls).

Since I've been home, I've been trying to resist the urge to obsessively refresh the Tour Divide Leaderboard. My ability to track Chris's progress via the internet is both a blessing and a curse. He certainly would not be "encouraged" to do such crazy adventures without my ability to check in on him in the wild west. On the other hand, I find myself getting sucked into the Leaderboard, refreshing it even when I know there's nothing new to see. I did pretty well on Sunday at getting out and riding my bike, thinking I may have actually matured past the obsessive SPOT-tracking. Monday, however, found me unmotivated to do anything, huddled on the couch, depressed and lonely and SPOT-refreshing like a mad woman. Luckily for me, Chris got the opportunity to call, and his enthusiasm and excitement about the race got me off my butt. I eventually visited a friend's new baby and had a great dinner with some out-of-town aunts.

Today I was determined to not get sucked into the computer and I'm happy to say that it's 3:30 and I've only loaded up the Leaderboard four or five times. I managed to get myself out of bed in a reasonable time, make an awesome breakfast, then set out for a great ride at Marshal Mesa with my most reliable training partners: me, myself, and I. I went out expecting to ride some easy but big miles, but ended up only riding about 12. In that 12, however, I sessioned the one technical section of the trail for nearly an hour. I could get the lower part, get the top part, but never seem to link them together in one solid run. I hope to go back at least a few more times before Chris gets home and try to perfect it. Then, when he gets home, I can show off my new mad skillz! Just as I was cruising back to the car, Chris called from Helena! He sounded good and was grabbing some food before heading out. I was happy to get to talk to him!

Buffalo Creek with Mr. Nice

When I got home, I showered, packed up a picnic lunch, and took Turbo out to the park for a bally-playing-picnic. It was really nice. Finally Colorado seems to have found its sun today, while the last month has looked a bit like Seattle. The sun does wonderful things for my mood at least!

If you want to follow Chris along his Divide journey, check here, here, or here.

Now? Apple pie, lemonade, Cash Cab, and maybe even a nap!!

P.S -- ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY NEW BIKE!!!!!!!

Adios, Blooby...

2009-05-23T16:42:00.008-06:00

Hola, FRANKENDOO!!!

Back in October 2006, Chris bought me my very first "new to me" mountain bike. We had searched and searched for a WSD Fuel and found one at Veloswap that seemed perfect. Going from a hand-me-down Cannondale from my brother to my very own girl bike was awesome. I learned to really "ride" on that bike. I bashed into stuff, dropped it on the ground, and slowly learned to let go of the brakes on downhills. I raced my first cross country races, my first downhill race, rode the Kokopelli unsupported in three days, and rode the White Rim for the first time in 1.5 days (which was, in the end, its farewell ride). The bike rode countless times in Colorado, Utah, and Missouri. It really was a great bike. However, over time, I came to realize that it was slightly too small. I also came to realize that it was slightly too heavy. When introduced to the world of 29ers, I also realized that its wheels were just too small.

After posting it up for sale this winter, then again this spring, Blooby was finally sold to a new owner a few weeks ago. By the time it was sold, it hardly looked like my bike anymore, with its long stem, skinny handlebars, aero-bunny, and blue SLR stripped off. I didn't meet its new owner, and I'm glad I don't know what the new rider looks like. I know, I know, it's a bike. But still. It was MY bike.

As a good replacement, Chris had been looking at several different 29er hardtail options. Today we went to pick up a "surprise" and look what I got!!

Oooh lah lah!!!!

I had no idea he had ordered me a frame (or even narrowed down the options), so it was an awesome surprise. Chris, knowing me quite well, added to the excitement and fun of getting a new bike by eliminating the necessity of me actually choosing which bike to get. I hate decisions. I especially hate BIG decisions.

I absolutely love the frame he chose... a VooDoo Aizan in Silver. Our friend Jeny has one in gold and she seems to love it!

Currently, Chris is stripping the headset out of my first Cannondale, my new Reba from the singlespeed, the brakes from the Monocog, my handlebars from my Fuel pile, the derailleur from Chris's old Fuel, the SLR from my road bike, and an old seatpost from something so old we can't remember :) (oh yeah, it will also be borrowing wheels from the singlespeed and getting a "new" wheel made from the parts from Chris's JabberWocky blown wheel and parts from a Monocog wheel!) It has some good love in its parts, which to me, makes it even better. Eventually some of these parts will be upgraded, but I like knowing it is a bit of a Frankenstein.

Can't wait to take Frankendoo out on its maiden voyage!

Contrast

2009-05-19T18:32:00.004-06:00

I suck at blogging lately.

School is just far too crazy and stressful to get anything else done when I'm home.

Ever.

Even fun things.

In the meantime, here is an interesting contrast between last Saturday and this past Saturday.

Saturday night in Utah:

Saturday night in Alton, Illinois:

From Saturday to Saturday we spent the week in five different states, including working here in Colorado for three of the seven days. We drove nearly 2500 miles.

No wonder I am sleepy and cranky.

One day my White Rim write-up will get finished...

(EDIT: okay, I'm not crazy, my new White Rim post posted after this one for some reason...)

White Rim in a Day

2009-05-15T10:29:00.020-06:00

(So, I just posted that "one day" I'd finish my White Rim report. Turns out, if you leave me alone with the computer, hungry, smelling brats soaking in beer waiting for the hubby to return, I can actually get a lot done!)

I officially survived (and enjoyed!) my first White Rim in a Day.

While Chris has ridden the White Rim around a dozen times in the last few years, as a couple the White Rim has been a bit of an illusive and tricky place.

The White Rim has found us stranded on a snowy cliff, swerving around a giant tan cow at 70 mph, and pedaling around in a day and a half with knee pain that was out of this world. When Chris suggested that we try it in a day this month, our first planned trip was thwarted by high winds and rain. Last weekend we finally made it there. Safely. With nice weather.

On Saturday, Chris, Brett, Erik, Jeremy, and I headed out in the wee morning hours for my first white rim in a day attempt. It was also Jeremy's first time, as well as Brett's first time on a single speed.

As we shivered in the morning cold, Chris and I decided to head out a few minutes early while the other guys finished getting ready. We cruised down the dirt road, enjoying riding this road in the morning instead of at the end of the loop as we did last time.

The sunrise was beautiful, as it always is in the desert.
Yes, the knee-warmer/tall wool sock combo is a super sexy one. Desert mornings are cold, and that's all I had, okay? Lay off.

After making our way down the (far too long) dirt road, we hit the pavement for another solid section of easy, but monotonous, riding. With the wind at our backs and the legs fresh and happy, this part was almost giggle-worthy. I remembered, in 08, just churning down this "mostly downhill" road, crying to Chris every time it would pitch upwards.
After turning off the pavement, we cruised down the Shaffer Road, enjoying the cool breeze and I, in particular, was really enjoying my new Reba! At the bottom, we regrouped to shed more layers.

The many many miles between Shaffer and Murphy's seem to blur in my mind.

These miles included me taking a nap in the parking area for Musselman's Arch (apparently while Chris did a kickass handstand on the arch):
a regroup at the lookout where I broke down crying last year -- this year feeling fresh and optimistic: and the icky hot hike up Murphy's Hogback: At the top of Murphy's, we found an itsy bit of shade to eat lunch beneath.

It was freaking hot. No, not just hot. Hot hot.

The rest of the miles that passed between lunch and dinner were mostly consumed with this thought: It's hot.

At one point I even hallucinated that a bunch of white rocks were the river. I got really excited. Then realized I was wrong. They were just rocks. Here's where the iPod came in handy. Chris was lucky enough to get second-hand iPod from me rockin' out-loud. Good thing the boys were ahead of us at this point -- we do make a good duet, but we prefer to stay undiscovered.

Did I mention that it was hot?

At one point we stopped and Jeremy pulled out his little thermometer. The "low 80s" forecast had reached 90 degrees. With no shade, and dwindling water supplies.

Nice.

I didn't freak out though. I must pat myself on the back for that one.

Hiking up Hardscrabble (yes, referred to in my '08 post as "not-fun-or-easy-scrabble"), was as un-fun as I remember it being. As Erik, Chris, and Brett zoomed up the hill, Jeremy and I soaked up every inch of shade that we could find.

I knew that Hardscrabble to the end was not too far, and the rolling top was not as painful and irritating as it was last time. Some encouragement and pushing from Erik was helpful in keeping me moving forward. I stopped at some point and asked some campers for a water refill. Jeremy had been out for many miles and was, undoubtedly, not feeling great because of it. At first I resisted asking, but then I realized that torturing myself further was simply stupid. I was down to a half of a bottle and knew I'd need more to make it up the final climb. The campers looked like they were having a great time and were happy to spare a bit of water.

Eventually we got back down to the river and made it to our Canyonlands sign. I'm pretty sure I was much perkier at this sign last year... granted last year this sign was a few short miles into our second day and this year it was 96ish miles into our day.

2008

2009

At the climb up out of the canyon to the car, Chris and I parted ways. He had suffered in a HUGE gear the whole way with my slow butt, and it was his time to blast the climb and leave me to suffer through on my own. I watched him start to climb, intended to get a picture of him, and then I didn't even see him again. He must've flown.

I, on the other hand, pedaled in my easiest gear (which, granted, was no granny) now and then, and walked the majority. My front wheel had a really annoying squeal, so I drown it out with my iPod. As I rocked out in my own little world, I looked around and admired the sunset and my new accomplishment.

Doing the White Rim in a day is a hard challenge, no matter who you are. Sure, Chris can hammer it out in less than 8 hours, while it took me something like 14, but either way, you've got to pedal yourself in and out of a pretty remote feeling canyon.

When I got to the top, the boys were waiting, Chris was juice and dinner in hand.

Before I knew it, I was contentedly passed out in the tent.

My favorite picture of the entire trip?

Thanks for the trip boys.

Say hello to my little friend...

2009-05-05T20:53:00.004-06:00

Reba!!

Wait, something's not right on THIS singlespeed...
Are those gears?
That's right, Rhonda is temporarily a 1 x 9.

Somehow I thought doing my first "White Rim In A Day" would be foolish on a rigid single speed.

I do want to stay married afterall. Chris is patient, but 100 miles of bitching may have pushed him over the edge... thus, he showed up with my new little friend Reba last night as a surprise.

Will I make it?

Oh, let's hope so.

Lookout Mountain Hill Climb

2009-05-02T12:31:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was the Lookout Mountain Hill Climb.

Lots of people rag on this race because it's relatively expensive for a 4.5 mile race. I, however, like the race atmosphere and it's worth the $30 to me to not have to deal with cars going up and down the road when I'm trying to set my fastest time.

The forecast called for rain and snow showers.

I went to bed fully expecting to wake up to pouring rain, which would certainly have me crawling back into my nice warm bed.

When I got up at 6:15 am, I was surprised to see that, while it was cloudy, it wasn't raining and it certainly wasn't snowing. I rallied Chris out of bed and before I knew it we were in Golden registering for the race.

Girls went off at 8:40, Chris got to wait until 10:15. It was nice to warm up and have my own personal crew there taking care of my every need, including stashing a bag of warm gear in a car heading to the top. As I sat on the trainer, I thought about all of the times I've ridden up Lookout...

The first time took me around 45 minutes and I thought I was going to die. I froze on the way down.

The second time took me around 40 minutes and I thought I was going to die. I froze, again, on the way down.

The third time was in the race last year. I was gunning for the 30 minute mark, but I missed it and came in at 31:31. I froze on the way down.

The fourth time I rode it wasn't timed, but was part of a big day of riding from our house down to Golden, up Lookout, and back. I think I was actually warm that time.

The fifth time was last week when I met Chris after work for a quick spin up. I made it up in 31:50 and wasn't even breathing hard.

This year's race would be the sixth time up (at least that I remember).

I warmed up on the trainer, tapping into my new-found appreciation of a hard warmup, and then lined up with the cat 4 girls to start.

I started towards the back. I still feel like I'm not good enough to start toward the front of race packs. Perhaps one day.

The race was pretty routine. I hopped from wheel to wheel, drafting when possible, and passing girls left and right. I found one girl on a pink bike, going a pretty reasonable pace, so I settled in behind her and we cruised up the first 2/3rds of the hill.

When I rode with Chris last week, he pointed out that the big turn off parking area is around 10 minutes to the top for me. If I wanted to hit that sub-30 minute mark, I'd need to be at that point in the course around 20 minutes in. I had tried not to pay too much attention to my bike computer on the way up, since I really don't know a good pace for this route yet. However, when I hit the turn off I allowed myself to look down to see if I was near the 20 minute mark. I was fully prepared to see myself slightly over. I looked down and saw 17 minutes. I'm pretty sure a "Oh s**t" came out. I was pretty surprised to see myself going that fast.

Shortly after that part of the course I was getting major side splitting cramp things. You know, the ones you would get when you were a kid and you run too far too fast? Yeah, that didn't feel great. My legs felt good, I wasn't breathing too hard, but the side aches were really making me mad. My pace dropped a bit and I tried to follow a few different girls. Eventually I found myself in a spot between groups and I ended up riding the last sprint finish by myself.

As I crossed the line I looked down and saw the bike computer at 27 minutes.

WOW!

I couldn't believe I had not only beat my 30 minute goal, but I had taken over FOUR MINUTES off my race time from last year. I hung around the top for a few minutes, putting on my many many layers of clothes for the 4.5 mile descent, and quickly bombed down to tell Chris the good news. (And no, I didn't freeze this time. The four tops, winter tights, and two pairs of gloves really helped)

I piled into Chris's big puffy belay jacket and took care of his pre-race needs, still surprised at myself. It was fun getting to watch the boys take off, Chris looking like he was shot out of a rocket immediately. He and Shawn both had good races, not far off their own best times.

The great part about a 8:30 am race in town? By noon we were home, relaxing, and settling in for a nap. After the nap we went and ate A LOT in Boulder and hung out at the bookstore while it rained.

It was a great day.

5 seconds of magic

2009-04-23T06:53:00.004-06:00

Finally broke the 30 minute mark at Cherry Creek last night.

By 5 seconds.

I'll take it!

The perfect date

2009-04-21T20:26:00.002-06:00

Step 1) Bike ride

Step 2) $0.40 wings, cheese sticks, and fries. Preferably it has to take an hour to get the food...

Step 3) Watch cat run on baseball field on TV while eating said 40 cent wings

Step 4) ICE CREAM!!!! (Cheap ice cream no less... "Are you students?" -- "sure, why not")

Step 5) Rock out to old school Brittany and Backstreet Boys while eating ice cream in the car

The quote of the evening?

Me: Oh sweety, you're so romantic.

Chris: It's easy to be romantic when you don't have a job!

I love him.

Today wins "Best Tuesday" award.

Hands down.

Sunshine

2009-04-20T19:43:00.003-06:00

Yes, my blogging has suffered lately.

Seriously suffered.

I have a list of excuses though: tired from work, busy with hubby, no easy camera+no pictures=borring blogs... blah blah. But really, in the end, the truth is that I just haven't blogged.

Either way...

An update (I hate writing 'updates', but it's necessary to move past the other fun things that have happened lately)

Springtime in Colorado is one of the most compelling reasons to live here. You can't beat a blizzard/rain storm one day, 70 degrees the next. The day after the "blizzard", Chris and I had an awesome road ride in the springy weather.

Today was even nicer. Unfortunately I had to put in some extra time at work tonight and I essentially missed almost all of the nice weather. Almost. Lucky for me, Chris had the great idea of taking Turbo for a nice walk. Nothing could've made any of us happier.

Chris not only set the single speed record on the AZT, but he also ended up passing his Praxis math test with honors! I'm very proud of him!

We are entering week 3 of the Cherry Creek Time Trials. It came quickly and it has gone quickly. Luckily we have 4 more races after this week. Hopefully I'll race myself into shape! Week 1 was great -- only less than a minute off my PR on the course and over 4 minutes faster than week one last year. Last week was windy, so slightly slower, but overall still a pretty good race.

We've continued to see the babyless-doctor, resulting in only normal tests (luckily). Next step is starting Clomid in the next week or so. We'll see what happens with that!

The Kindergarteners are still a bit crazy, but as the year winds down, I am TRYING to enjoy them as much as possible. While the end of the year brings tedious testing, I actually enjoy doing it. I love seeing how much they have managed to learn through the chaos.

And there's an update.

I really need to get back into the swing of the blogging thing.

This was awkward.

G'night.

The fat lady has sung!

2009-04-13T18:44:00.002-06:00

Chris finished!

WOOOOO!

Almost 67 hours? 26 hours of continuous riding (or hike-a-biking) with only a short lunch break? New single speed record?

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.

I knew he could do it.

I think we'll both sleep soundly tonight.

I can't wait until he gets home one of these days.

An ode to my wonderful (aka crazy) husband

2009-04-09T20:53:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow, around 9 am, Chris will head out to do the AZT300.

He has officially made it safely down to Arizona -- quite a step up from last year.

As I was driving home from a long day at work and class tonight, I was thinking about what he's about to do, where he's been, and how unbelievably proud of him I am. And when I get proud, I have to do the proverbial shout from the mountain tops in the form of blogging.

So here it goes...

Hubby,

I have a theory.

As with all of my theories, I am absolutely right. No questions asked.

We've often had the discussion about whether your seemingly bottomless pit of talent comes naturally or through hard work. We always come to a conclusion that it's a good combination of both.

Surely you have a natural drive and desire to explore, challenge yourself, and succeed. You approach everything in your life with this obsessive enthusiasm that I absolutely love. A drive like that is not something someone learns, it only can come naturally.

On the other hand, you are the most dedicated person I have ever met. With your natural enthusiasm comes a will to learn, train, and suffer. This is what ultimately sets you apart from any other athlete that I know. I can't even begin to count the times that you have dragged yourself out of a nice, warm bed, only to put on some chilly spandex and head out into the dark to ride. You resist the urge to get into sweats with me when I get home from work and instead hop on the trainer for some hard workouts. I've seen you make yourself suffer because you know that it'll help you out down the road.

You research every possible angle of a race, how you want to approach it, what gear you will need, what mindset you need to be in. You work hard for what you achieve, no one can possibly argue that.

Last year you were set for this race. Your mind was in the right place, your fitness dialed. But, as we've all learned, the unexpected often happens when you least want it to. You rebounded pretty well though, setting your mind to other tasks and trying to stay positive.

So here you are again this year: dialed, ready, fit. But this year you have a little something extra.

And finally, here's where my theory comes in.

You have wings.

You must've been born with them, as you let them peek out when you decided to ride away from your family at the park as a kid and end up miles down the road, only to send them into a frantic search for you (and yes, our kid will be properly outfitted with a SPOT at birth).

I think you let them out a bit here and there, testing the water with various activities, sports, and passions. Even when you got into biking, you tried to let them out but they seemed stuck.

When you finished the Colorado Trail this summer, it seems you found them. You realized that with a bit of frantic waving, they would come out and you could fly.

The good thing about wings though, once they are out and moving, you can use them whenever you want.

When things are hard, when they are easy, or when you are simply turning over the cranks one after the other, they are there in your bottomless pit of natural and learned talent for you to use.

You can fly.

So go do it.

The rest of us will be here cheering you on.

Watch Chris and the other AZT300 racers here.

SPRING BREAK 2009! Days 5, 6, and 7 (aka Desert Schmesert part four)

2009-03-27T16:33:00.006-06:00

The last few days have been spent having a lot of fun exploring Moab's best tourist area, Arches National Park. The weather has certainly been better than the blizzard that hit at home, but it still pulled its usual "haha, I'm not really a desert" weather that seems to hit every single time I am here.

On to some pictures from the last few days (ignore the splotchy spots on most of the pictures -- the D70/lenses have some annoying dust on them and I'm too lazy to photoshop the splotchies out for now)

Rhonda on my ride up the Bar M trail.

I found Fred's van and managed to leave Chris a "cryptic" note :)

Wednesday, Chris and I decided to ride our road bikes through Arches. We totaled about 45 miles and 3800 ft of climbing.

It got pretty chilly when the sun dipped behind the clouds and the wind picked up.

Near the campground at the end of the road.

We did a side-trip to hike to the Delicate Arch lookout point. It looked small from there. People looked on in awe as we hiked the "treacherous" 1.5 mile loop in our bike clothes.

We got a million more pictures from biking Arches, and I will eventually put them into a slide show if you are interested in seeing them. Riding through Arches is certainly the way to see it as even at slow riding speeds it was hard to see everything. If you have a road bike, and some extra time in Moab, do this loop -- it's amazing! That night we camped at Sandflats again, as the colder weather moved in.

Overnight the extreme winds and heavy rain moved in, blanketing the La Sal's with more snow.

Thursday was deamed a "rest day" as the weather was generally icky and cold. We decided to use our Arches pass to go back and drive to some of the small hikes we didn't get to do the day before. During our visit this time, the clouds rolled in quickly and it SNOWED. Pssssh, "desert" :)

Chris is always in search of a little adventure, even if it's just on a random rock laying on the ground.

We decided to do a three mile hike to see Delicate Arch up close. The weather started out nice, but once we hit this section of slickrock, the snow (small icy pelets) came crashing down on us. They looked really cool blowing down the rock. People, once again, looked at us like we were crazy, as this time we were headed UP when everyone else was running down away from the weather.

A tradition of the boy's. He's good at handstands.

A nice French guy offered to take our picture, and luckily he seemed to know what he was doing with a camera and took lots of great shots for us.

When we made it back to the car, we decided to head back to town to check in to our hotel. The shower was AWESOME and it feels good to have a home-base that doesn't need packing and repacking each time we want to sleep. We ate at the Diner last night for a pseudo-birthday dinner, since Chris has big riding plans for my actual birthday. The dinner itself was okay, the ice cream afterwards was the best part!

This morning Chris and I had a Starbucks date at a local coffee shop and then I dropped him off to ride with Fred, Mike C, and Dave C. I came back to the hotel room and watched TV, napped, and have been catching up on crappy TV. Hopefully we'll get to go get some dinner soon, then turning in early. Tomorrow I'm hoping to do a small ride or two, nap more, and generally get some quality relaxing in before work starts back up next week. Life's timing has me getting my uncomfortable "why are you babyless" procedure done on Monday afternoon, meaning I won't be headed back to work until Tuesday. I guess I'll take an extra day off wherever I can get it!

SPRING BREAK 2009! Days 3 and 4

2009-03-24T18:58:00.002-06:00

No pictures for now, as I'm too lazy to upload them, but plenty of fun has been had over the last two days!

Yesterday ended not raining as we thought it would, but we still ended up taking things pretty relaxed. Chris rode Porcupine Rim in the morning, while I sat at the coffee shop and caught up on life over the internet, wallowing over my soreness. When Chris got back, we searched for (and finally bought!) Chris's new climbing shoes. Of course after buying climbing shoes, you have to get ice cream and then actually go climbing! We hit up the Schoolroom Slabs on Wall Street again, only this time it didn't seem as easy as our previous experience out there. I was psyching myself out, and stood virtually paralyzed on the side of the slab for so long that Chris finally starting pulling the rope in an attempt to make me so uncomfortable that I'd have to move. I eventually made it up the relatively easy line, and after some complaining and whining, Chris moved the rope to a new anchor. This time I climbed a little better, not stopping to cry as on previous pitches. We climbed several different areas, Chris even making it up a really difficult looking roof with relative ease.

After climbing we met up with UltraRob for some delicious Pasta Jay's. It's always great to catch up with blog-friends and it was really fun to listen to his RAAM stories. With full bellies, we hit up a pretty good camping spot in Sandflats. We are getting really good at arranging and rearranging the packed car to fit our air mattress sleep system. The last few nights have been quite windy and cold, leaving us sleeping in the car rather than in our nice tent. I'm enjoying camping, but also looking quite forward to our hotel room Thursday!

This morning we had some great breakfast at the Love Muffin and met up with Fred, Pete B, and Pete's friend. Chris took off on a day-long adventure with the enduronuts, while I headed over to a nice parking lot nap before going on my own ride. I rode from town up the old highway (a cracked old road that's no longer in use) and then around the Bar M trail. Chris and I explored the Bar M area last Spring Break, and I wanted to go back. This time I avoided the slickrock-ish trails that venture from the main trail and just stuck to the loop. What an awesome trail! It was way better marked than last year and a good mix of dirt trail and interesting rocks. In all, I rode about 20 miles, before searching the town's streets for free internet. I finally found some and then I proceeded to wait several hours for Chris to get back. He seems to have had a great ride with the boys.

Now I sit outside my new-found shower place while Chris cleans up (did I mention that I LOVE showers?), then we are off to find food and then our campsite for the night. Tomorrow's plan is to ride road bikes through Arches National Park, more eating, more showering, and most likely more napping. Thursday looks a bit rainy and icky, so perhaps we'll be seeing a movie and settling in nicely to our hotel room.

Ahhhh, spring break. There's nothing quite like it.

SPRING BREAK 2009! Days 1 and 2

2009-03-23T11:14:00.011-06:00

SPRING BREAK 2009! WOOO!

Just had to get that out there!

Despite my feelings leading up to this week, I did, in fact, survive long enough to see spring break this year. Let's just say, I've come to the conclusion that I have, overall, my most difficult group of kids yet -- and that's saying a lot because I've had chair throwers, a girl who would bolt from the building randomly, severely emotionally disturbed kids, and the list could go on and on and on.

I'm happy to be away for a week. To say the least.

So here I am, Monday morning, NOT at work (WOOHOOO!), sitting in the Red Rock Bakery and Cafe. I'm more than a bit sad that Mondos apparently has gone under, but this is an okay substitute. At least the hot chocolate is half decent.

Spring break so far?

Excellent.

We had a leisurely drive in on Saturday, meeting up with Brett, Jeremy, and Chris for a smoothie before they went in search of a nap and we went in search of some rock climbing. A few hours of 5.7 desert climbing on Wall Street was just what our cooped up bones needed. Some fellow climbers saw the back of our Element and dropped their jaws in amazement that "those two people have four bikes, climbing stuff, camping stuff, and everything shoved in there." Yep, we're pretty awesome.

After climbing, we had a LONG wait for dinner at the brewery and then went in search of a good camp spot. Eventually we settled in for the night and were amazed at how absolutely warm the night was. For once, I actually unzipped my sleeping bag and didn't sleep in my down jacket. That never happens in Colorado.

We woke up early Sunday morning, packed up camp, and hit up the Love Muffin for some delicious breakfast. Last year I scored an awesome pumpkin-chocolate chip muffin from here, couldn't wait to eat it, only to have Turbo eat it while I stepped out of the car for a minute. Luckily they had more, and the year's wait was well worth it. YUM! After breakfast, we met up with the boys at the Slickrock parking lot for a ride. The weather was still fairly warm, but very very windy. I thought we left Westminster to get away from the spring wind?

Slickrock is a one-of-a-kind trail. At least in Colorado, you can never ride 11 miles of rock. The first time I rode this trail two years ago, I told myself I wouldn't be sad if I never rode it again. Last Spring Break, I rode it again with Dave C and the crew. Afterwards, I told myself that I wouldn't be sad if I never rode it again. So here I was, riding it again. Only this time, I didn't have my squishy full suspension Fuel with lots of gears... I rode my only rideable mountain bike that I own right now -- the rigid single speed. I knew there'd be lots of walking. And I was right. Lots.

It's hard to not get discouraged when you have to walk almost all of the ups on a very up-and-down trail. I did, however, notice that I could attack the downhills with far less fear and anxiety than ever before. The 29er was awesome and when the ups allowed for some good momentum or weren't too long, the single wasn't toooooo bad. The rigid made the least difference, often feeling smoother than my full suspension ever did. I did have a few incidents of my chain coming off on the uphills, causing me to slam to the handlebars, leaving my shoulders in quite a bit of pain today. Chris, Brett, Jeremy, and the other Chris did a great job on the trail and I was clearly the anchor in this group as usual.

It was great to be out and riding though, and despite the crazy wind the whole way, it sure beats the riding weather out in Colorado right now!

After riding, we got some food (which my post-ride stomach wouldn't allow me to eat), and the working folk headed back to Denver (haha, suckers). Chris and I drove back to Wall Street and he explored while I took a nap in the car. Eventually Chris got in a bit of climbing, while I belayed from the car, and we headed to camp. We had a nice camp dinner and read some books in the Hotelement last night before turning in.

Today, Chris is out riding Porcupine Rim while I sit here drinking my hot chocolate and catching up on the outside world. I managed to pay for a shower this morning, making me feel much more human, but no less sore. The weather today is supposed to be iffy, so we may just bum around town in search of Chris's next pair of climbing shoes... but we'll see.

The great thing about SPRING BREAK 2009!... there's a heck of a lot of relaxing to be had in this beautiful place and lots of time to do it in.

Sing out loud

2009-03-17T18:50:00.003-06:00

Sunday was a sing-out-loud day on the bike.

Literally.

One runner actually told me: "Nice singing, how refreshing to see someone actually enjoying themselves."

Ha.

That was and will probably be the only time I've been complemented on my singing.

While the boys rode their March road century, Rhonda The Singlespeed and I hit up some much needed singletrack around Marshal Mesa (as well as the roads that lead there).

Another wicked headwind nearly had me turned back at the neighborhood exit, but I pushed through it, determined to get to some sort of dirt. Getting to the Coalton Trailhead was way more work than necessary, even requiring me to attempt to pedal DOWN the Wall.

Once to Coalton, the views of the flatirons, Longs, and even Pikes way down south made the effort all worth it.
I rode Coalton, where most of the singing happened. It finally felt good to be out and there was a great tune playing in my ear... what else is a girl supposed to do?

Soon I got to the actual Marshal Mesa trails, Community Ditch trail, and Cowdrey Draw trail. Lots of pedaling, giggling, and whooping here!
Finally I stopped for the first time to catch a bit of a snack. Trucky the Ducky likes king sized snickers!
Before I knew it, I was on the road home.

3 hours and 30ish miles later, I was back at home. The rest of the night and the next day found me feeling pretty terrible, making me come to the conclusion that my mind and heart are, actually, in much better shape than my body. I felt pretty lame for feeling so sore and icky after, but considering I rode a hard 3 hours on the single speed with only one two-minute break for a half a snickers, I guess I deserved it.

And the post ride glass of wine didn't hurt :)

Relaxation

2009-03-14T15:28:00.002-06:00

One week until Spring Break starts.

Spring Break is a highlight of the year. Right about now, the kids are sick of each other, they are sick of the teacher, and the teacher is getting a little sick of some of them. One week away brings some good perspective to all involved in education even while non-teachers scoff at it as an unnecessary luxury.

This year's SPRING BREAK 2009! will be spent in Moab, Utah, sucking up all of the biking, hiking, and climbing that the land-o-red-dirt has to offer. In between all of that, I will be getting some much needed relaxation and perspective on life.

Needless to say, I can't wait!

Meanwhile, back in the real world, things are moving along. Chris took his Praxis test today as one of the final steps toward becoming a high school math teacher. He won't get his results for a while, but seeing as he's the smartest person I've ever met, I'm sure he did great! I had another blood test yesterday for the no-baby-doctor which will be the last step before a slightly uncomfortable procedure happening in a few weeks. After that, we'll hopefully know more information and find a way to make a baby!

And...

Today was wonderful.

Nearly perfect.

At least so far.

I woke up and made Chris a delicious pre-test breakfast and then promptly went back to sleep when he left at 6:30 am. I slept for a few hours and woke up and took a nice long shower before Chris got home. When he got back, we went out for some delicious Panera lunch, followed by a nice long walk around the dog park with Turbo (his second-most favorite thing behind cheese). From there we hung out at Dairy Queen with some tasty ice cream and then came home to digest. Chris is now out on a nice long ride, while I head out for a delicious dinner and movie with the girls. Talk about a good day! Too bad there weren't any pictures...

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend out in bloggerland. Cheers to upcoming 70 degree weather!!!

'Snow place like a snow race

2009-03-10T20:21:00.006-06:00

We had a great meet-aversary weekend in Leadville!

Chris and I cashed in on an awesome prize from one of last year's Leadville snow races: a free dinner for two at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse. We had the choice of snowshoeing or cross country skiing to the dinner, which was at a candlelit yurt about a mile up the trail from the lodge. Seeing as we own snowshoes and neither of us had ever tried cross country skiing, we chose the skis. We skied in at sunset time, although the view and sunset was seriously obstructed by the low clouds dropping soft snowflakes on us. The ski in was mostly uphill, making for a slow trek for these newbies.

We eventually got to the yurt and sat down to an unbelievable four course meal with delicious hot chocolate and tea.

When dinner was done, and we were REALLY full from our sausage, cheese, bacon wrapped scallops, bread, salad, roast chicken, elk, and pie, we got to strap on some headlamps and ski back downhill to our car. Going downhill was interesting, especially in the dark, but it certainly was fun.

The next day was the Leadville snow race. This race took me 1 hr 40 mins, with a lot of walking but gears for for fast downhills. This year it took me about 1 hr 10 mins, with stellar trail conditions, no walking, but no gears to crank up when I was horribly spun out. The race itself was a blast. I loved riding a course that had made me walk sooooo much last year. Once again, the scenery was unbeatable. The snow races this year haven't failed to plaster a permasmile on my face while riding. Poor Chris was miserably sick, but still stuck it out for a fun ride. He even wrote me a note in the snow, but I somehow missed it.

We stuck around after to watch some crazy ski joring (skiers being pulled through a jump course by HORSES -- nutzos), eat some delicious cookies, and cash in on some other gift certificates gained from this wonderful winter series. It was a wonderful weekend and very refreshing. Thanks to our hosts, Kathy and Chris -- owners of Cycles of Life for putting us up with wonderful spots to sleep on Saturday night, allowing us to swing our fancy dinner and an early race start all in one weekend.

And now... funny kid quote of the week!!!!

We were walking in from music and one of my girls said "I know how to spell 'oh my goodness'" and I said "oh yeah?" to which she responded "yep, OMG." That would've been funny enough, but then she said "can we put that on the word wall?" Ha! Umm, no.

Priorities

2009-03-04T18:40:00.002-07:00

During math groups today, one the groups was chatting while "working" as usual. Usually I tell them to get back to work, but today's conversation was just too entertaining to shush. It went a little something like this:

Boy: I color better than you do

Girl: No you don't

Boy: Yes I do

Girl: Well, I know God's powers

Boy: Oh really?

Girl: Yep. He could change this blue marker into a red marker

Boy: Oh

Girl: Beat those apples

Hahahahaha.

When they're not driving me insane, they kill me.

"I never knew infertility could be so much fun!"

2009-02-27T15:38:00.002-07:00

Today was our appointment with the "lack-o-baby doctor" -- at least that's what he shall now be referred to, as "reproductive endocrinologist" is far too many letters to type.

I'm proud of us.

We finally got the ball rolling.

While today was mostly just a general consult, the doctor was very nice and very positive. We met with the RN who got background info, family history, etc. Then she left us alone in the office with a large pamphlet about infertility. Seeing as Chris and I have a combined mental age of 10, we had a few good nervous laughs waiting for the doctor. When he came in, he explained the basic steps for us to go through to find out more about why we still don't have a little one after two years of trying. He talked to us for a little while and then left us alone in the office again while we waited for the rn to come back in for more talking. We were laughing about silly stuff when the rn came back in. Her comment went something like this...

"wow, you guys sound like you're having a good time. We could even hear you out there. I never knew infertility could be so much fun!"

Haha. We explained that we have an uncanny ability to make any situation fun together and that's partially why we're so dang awesome... :)

Anyway, I went down and had some blood work done. Next step involves Chris, then I'll go back for more blood work on FRIDAY THE 13th -- dun dun dunnnnnn -- and then an uncomfortable looking procedure at the end of March. Between those three tests, hopefully we'll get more information and find a way to make a baby!

I'm optimistic, but trying not to be too optimistic so as not to be too disappointed.

That's just how I roll.

After the doctor, we hung out at the bookstore, then to Noodles for some delicious lunch. Our original plan of climbing this lovely day-off-afternoon was thwarted by my lingering flu symptoms, so instead I took a nap while Chris suffers on the trainer (fair warning to anyone racing against him this year -- he's got some serious dedication flowing).

A good Friday on the books, now on to a weekend of healing and hopefully some fun!

Ssssssssssick

2009-02-26T14:52:00.003-07:00

Fever? Check

Chills? Check

Worst headache of my life? Check

Cough/sniffling/sneezing? Check

Aches? Check

Softest of fabrics feel like sandpaper against my skin? Check! Yes, even synchilla.

Loss of will to live (at least for today...)? CHECK

If this isn't the season's flu, I'm not sure what is.

Ick.

Thanks to hubby for taking super good care of me and even sitting through hours of I Love Lucy and all of my complaining.

Yes, I even complain more than little Peggy Ann McKay. I hope hope hope I can go play on Saturday...

I Cannot Go to School Today!

By Shel Silverstein

"I cannot go to school today"

Said little Peggy Ann McKay

"I have the measles and the mumps,

A gash, a rash, and puruple bumps.

My mouth is west, my throat is dry.

I'm going blind in my right eye.

My tonsils are as big as rocks,

I've counted sixteen chicken pox.

And there's one more - that's seventeen,

And don't you think my face looks green?

My leg is cut, my eyes are blue,

It might be the instamatic flu.

I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,

I'm sure that my left leg is broke.

My hip hurts when I move my chin,

My belly button's caving in.

My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,

My 'pendix pains each time it rains.

My toes are cold, my toes are numb,

I have a sliver in my thumb.

My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,

I hardly whisper when I speak.

My tongue is filling up my mouth,

I think my hair is falling out.

My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,

My temperature is one-oh-eight.

My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,

There's a hole inside my ear.

I have a hangnail, and my heart is...

What? What's that? What's that you say?

You say today is... saturday?

G'bye, I'm going out to play!"