The Dos and Don'ts of Parent/Teacher Conferences

A while back my mom made a training video about the do's and don'ts of conferences -- for teachers. Here is my own rendition -- except this time for parents:

1) Bring treats. Ok, so no one has done this yet but when you've been at work for 11+ hours a cookie would be good.

2) If you feel treats are slightly inappropriate, a nice handshake and 'thank you' will have the same effect. It's amazing how much respect a teacher will gain for you if you actually thank him/her for working with your child.

3) Don't answer your cell phone in the middle of the conference.

4) Don't answer your cell phone in the middle of the conference and start talking for a few minutes.

5) DO NOT reach into your bra to pull out your cell phone to answer it in the middle of the conference.

6) ... and then talk on it.

7) ... and then return it to the bra.

8) ... and then proceed to let it vibrate for the rest of the conference.

9) ... in your bra.

10) wow.

I'm tired.

But extremely amused.

Happy Birthday to you...

For the next six weeks I am married to an older man.
Happy birthday baby!

Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?

Today I visited a store to purchase something for someone's birthday.

I used a cart.

I took my purchases out to the car and emptied the cart.

Noticing the massive winds whirling around the area today, I took the cart back inside the store because of the lack of "cart corrals" in the parking lot.

I know some people find themselves too lazy to bring a cart back inside the store if there is a lack of convenient storage, but I am not one of those people.

I pushed through the winds, back inside the store, and back to my car just in time to see...

a cart careening towards my front bumper.

Niiiiice.

Because I took the time to save someone else's car from the potential of my wind blown cart, my own car got creemed by someone else's.

Luckily the E is primarily made of plastic and the cart simply bounced off as I lunged forward to catch it.

Please, people, take the two minutes to return the cart to a spot where it won't get blown into innocent cars.

Is that really too difficult? Hmmm?

Take that...

Today Chris woke up early early to go on another epic Saturday ride. After a restless night's sleep (due to super bizarre dreams), I ended up "sleeping" (aka, flip 'n flopping) until about 11. When I woke up, I had intentions to ride, but then realized I had a bunch of other things I also wanted to do with my day. The weather seemed pretty nice and I've been wanting to wash the car, walk the dog, and do a little 'spring cleaning' around the house. In addition to those little chores, I have some birthday-present-related-activities to do for a certain someone's birthday on Tuesday.

However, I told Chris I would ride today.

Sooooo, I had three options:
1) Ride
2) Lie to myself and him and say I rode (really lame, I know, but I surely considered it)
3) Ride the trainer after doing all of my other chores while the weather was nice

So I took the dog for a walk. Then decided it was way too nice to pass up an actual ride outside. I put on my clothes and knee warmers, and fully intended to take the road bike out on a little spin around the neighborhoods for an hour. That way I'd feel like I rode, and it wouldn't be on the trainer. As I got all ready, I realized that my matchymatchyness has reached near vomitable proportions with the new team kit. My road shoes and helmet match the new shorts and jersey so much that you'd think I'd planned it. I intend to take pictures to prove it too you soon. For now I'm too lazy.

I took the road bike off the trainer and tried to put some air in the tires. That ended in my front tire being totally flat and a bike pump flying across the kitchen in frustration. Soooo, I put on my mountain shoes (less matchymatchy) and I headed out on the Fuel.

The weather was beautiful. Perfect actually. It's hard to imagine that it's supposed to get retardedly cold again tomorrow. Boo. Anyway, I felt good so I changed my plan from easy spin to actual training mission. I headed through the neighborhood paths up to the monster hill on Simms by our house. This hill has humbled me even on a road bike in perfect conditions.

Today I decided to heave my heavy mountain bike up the hill into a monster headwind.

Twice.

In my middle ring.

For fun.

I went up once, and it went ok. My legs felt good. The wind sucked. My leftover sickiness was coming up my lungs. Lovely. I watched a herd of Chipotle boys head down the hill on their fancyschmancy bikes and none of the 20ish even bothered to throw a smile or nod my way -- they were acting quite "roadie" -- which, of course, tweeked my competitive streak. I decided they probably hadn't gone up this hill, and definitely not twice, so when I hit the top and took a swig of water, I quickly headed back down only to turn around and do it again.

Take that snooty roadie boys.

The second time up actually felt easier. When I reached the top I pondered doing it a third time, but decided to leave the activity with my interest still in tact so as to be more likely to come out and try again soon. Once I get the computer on my bike fixed, I'd like to start timing myself up the hill and work on holding a decent increasing pace. When I get sick of that hill, I'll start working on The Wall. Hopefully those types of workouts will help me out on the painful hill in the time trial course and then help with the Hill Climb in June.

When I came down, I headed up the smaller hill on the other side by the dog park, and then turned into the neighborhoods and cruised home. It was a good ride.

I'm glad I chose option 1.

P.S: I'm quite glad it's the weekend. Because of President's Day and upcoming conferences, I have Monday AND Tuesday off for a much needed not-sick four day weekend. The kids were unbelievably crazy this week due to Valentine's Day, Picture Day, Pajama Day, and the dramatic swings in weather lately. Here are two funny kid quotes from yesterday:
"My mom says when she gets more money we're going to get a Boxer dog and a Petbull" -- hehe, pet bull.
"We need to brush our teeth after eating so much candy so we don't get gravities" -- hehe, gravities.
They may be crazy, but kids sure are funny sometimes.

The Lucky One

I don't think I mention enough about how I'm the luckiest girl in the world.

Not only is my husband awesome at biking, but he is also the greatest husband around.

And it's true everyday.

Not just on Valentine's Day.

He makes me smile and laugh an uncountable number of times everyday.

I worried, growing up, that I would never be able to find a husband who could ever live up to the high standards that I had. I was lucky enough to grow up with the most thoughtful and generous dad in the entire world. For as long as I can remember, I would wake up on Valentine's Day to find a card or present or candy waiting for me in the bathroom or outside my door. Dad has always had a way of doing that little something extra (i.e. cutting my hotdogs into little pacmans with cheese; leaving a note in my lunch bag, etc). How could anyone else ever live up to that?

Somehow Chris has managed to do just that. He never seizes to amaze me with his thoughtfulness and sweetness. Since today is Valentine's Day I get even more special treatment than ever. I woke up to a nice backrub instead of an annoying alarm, then pancakes with chocolate chip hearts and omelets, and now I just came home to beautiful roses, a glass of wine, and deluxe dinner and my favorite dessert.

Sometimes it's great to be a girl.

I love you Christopher.

p.s. Super big thank you to TMom for the Fannie May fudge!!!! I know where Chris gets his supreme thoughtfulness.

Congratulations Hubby!

You have always been Numero Uno to me, but I'm so proud of you for proving it to everyone else last night. Congratulations on your big NUMBER ONE in the second Leadville winter race. My new favorite words heard over a race radio? "Wow! Someone has already come through this checkpoint. We almost missed him, he came so fast. It's... uhh... Chris Plesko." Hehe. I'm very proud of you. Oh, and thanks for winning that bottle of wine and awesome dinner for two at the Tennessee Pass Cookhouse. Yum!

Ooooh, ahhh. Beautiful sunset.
My only success at getting a "streaky light" night picture. I intended to get more of these during the race, but then the camera froze. Literally.
Mr. #1 getting ready to race in the new team kit.
Part of the start line.
We have a weeeener.
Mike finishing. Apparently he became see-through as the race wore on.
Congratulations to Mike, Chris, Dave and Bill for an awesome showing. The boys on my team are seriously cool.


P.S. I am a few days into my dose of antibiotics for tonsillitis and should hear back about strep tomorrow. I'm improving, but slowly. I still get daily pounding headaches and have little to no appetite. I haven't ridden my bike in the month of February. I better get better soon. This is not delightful. For anyone involved.

Drum roll please...

Here is the long awaited Turbo-prancing-in-his-shoes-movie. It's shaky, but that's because I was laughing so hard. (Ignore my annoying voice.)

Despite my feelings when I snapped this picture...

I am seriously lucky to live in Colorado.

And have a husband who 'encourages' me to get out and explore it.

And great friends and an awesome dog to explore with.

The plan for this weekend evolved out of one simple comment: "Hey, Chris! Let's find somewhere fun to try out our new snowshoes this weekend." So... I was thinking, I don't know, north Boulder or Evergreen or something. Easy walk to see what snowshoes are all about. Somehow that turned into a winter summit attempt at Pikes Peak. My response: "Hmmm?" And then after a week of passive aggressive tiffs on my end, I found myself rising surprisingly easily at 2:45 am on Sunday morning for the drive down to the Springs.

As we drove down to the Springs in the E with four people and two dogs, I surprised myself at my lack of napping (me, wake up at 2:45 and not nap? Blasphemy!). The roads were great and nicely maintained for being the dead of winter. We laced up our snowshoes, put Turbo's shoes and pack on and headed off around 6 am.



Can I just say that Turbo looks ridiculously cute in his new hiking shoes and pack? Hence the three different pictures. One of these days I'll become less internet retarded and find a way to post the video of him prancing around like a puppy with his new shoes on. It's hilarious.

Anyway, we started hiking up through the trees on a well trudged path and the weather was extraordinary. We chose Pikes after seeing that our first choice of mountains, Mt. Elbert, was supposed to have a big winter storm move through during the day. As we marveled at the weather in the trees, I knew we'd made a good choice. We were even getting on the warm side. Amazing for the beginning of February surrounded by feet of fresh powder.
As the path wound around the trees, we broke through to this beautiful view:

This picture doesn't do it justice. I stopped and threw some Cheese-Its in my bag (my fuel for most of the day as it would turn out) and we started heading up a pretty steep slope out past tree-line. Here, we experienced the true winter ascent experience as we could now feel the howling winds that the trees had protected us from. Up here the path disappeared under the wind's force and we blazed our own trails up the crusty snow packed surface.

I guess this was my first taste of "real" snowshoeing and I wasn't exactly thrilled.

Nicholette, being much more experienced on snowshoes, flew up the hillside and disappeared from my sight. Chris followed shortly behind her. Unluckily for Bill, he got stuck behind me and ended up catching me a few times from tumbling backwards down the snowy hill as I was either being wind blown or just clumsy on the snowshoes. I would make one step and slide back two more often than not and it was making me frustrated. At the top of this particular part there was a big rock formation to see and it kept me motivated to reach at least that point.

I was a little frustrated and getting a little tired and nervous about the wind and cold, but still ready to keep going. When hiking up this trail on Pikes, you intersect the road at some point and from there you still have quite a way, but at least you made it to 'the road'. I wanted to make it to the road, but to make it that, we had to keep crossing this saddle-ridge-hill thing. At this point it was so windy and cold that even the inner-photog in me couldn't muster the will to dig out the camera for some amazing photo ops. The wind was blowing the snow across the hillside with the sun low behind the hill in such a way that the vision will forever be embossed in my mind.

At some point my hands started to get cold, and from there I was pretty much in trouble. Chris put his huge belay parka on me and when that failed to warm me up, we made the decision to start heading back down. We made it almost to 13,000 ft and the last 1,000+ feet weren't going to get any less windy or cold. As we found out later, the winds were steady around 30 mph with gusts even higher than that. The wind chill was -20 to -35. Umm yeah, brr. Chris was wonderful and turned around with a smile and Bill and Nicholette gracefully joined us. I felt bad to be the reason to turn the group around before reaching the summit, but as I knew I was moving my fingers but couldn't actually feel it happening, I didn't see much other choice for me.

So we headed down.

Did I mention that at this point my Balaclava had frozen to my face through the breathing holes? Niiiiice.
The way down was much more fun. We did some fun sliding/glissading down the hillside in deep powder. In all of the fun (and extreme wind) we sorta lost the trail that we had taken up the big hill. This provided the most fun of the day in my opinion. We had three GPS's between the four of us, so, in Chris's words "we're not lost, we know exactly where the trail is, we just can't find it." Hehehe. We zigzagged and blazed new trail through the trees. Chris plowed through the knee deep powder, Bill and the dogs following, with Nicholette and I reaping the benefits of a cleared path.


It's hard to tell, but this is Chris pointing us in the direction that we'd both come from and where we were supposed to be headed. Hmmm...

At last! The Trail!


Here we stopped and took some photos before heading back down the trail to the car at a relaxed pace with good conversation. We thawed out in the car and proceeded to have some yummy Red Robin in the Springs.

The best photos of the day? I have a great series of shots of Chris that I want to mess with a bit before posting, but here's a teaser -- the end result of his actions:


We had a great time overall, despite the freezy hands and now incredibly sore knee/hip. This was an adventure never to forget!
The group:
The thawing dogcicle:
The friends:
Haha, and finally Chris's totally unintentional but quite cheesy looking "rugged mountaineer" pose:

Good intentions

I sat down to write a blog on, hmmm, Sunday about my amazing ride out in the 64 degree weather. It renewed my energy. It was beautiful. I finally got out with the D70 on the bike, admired the Colorado beauty, and even saw Chris's lone Coyote friend Fileepoh (although was too slow hauling out Hoss Camera to snap a picture). I've yet to download the pictures but hopefully that'll happen later this week some time. The weather and the ride were just what my attitude needed.

Prior to that, I sat down on, hmmm, Saturday night, to blog about my most spectacular husband and his 2nd place finish in his first snow race up in Leadville. After waking up crankily about getting hauled out of bed so early, while still sick, on a Saturday morning to sit in ski traffic... we arrived in Leadville and I felt the pull of the race. I immediately regretted being sick and not having my bike with me. In the end, it's good I didn't ride seeing as I'm still -- over a week after getting sick -- still sickish. I also got to see Chris finish with a HUGE smile on his face. Another race in the books where I didn't even have a chance to worry about him or wonder where he was. My sights are set on the night snow race on the nordic course near Leadville on the 9th. It sounds like fun to spin around in the snow and endo into piles of powder. I think Chris is warping my brain slowly.

But alas, neither of the blogs actually got written past the first sentence. So here I sit, slowly catching up after an evening of online masters class bs'ing and an hour of trainer riding while reading boring material for said class.

In my head I've also been kicking around the idea of actually talking about our failed baby making attempts on the blog. It's something I've skirted around on this blog -- fearing it was too much information or something; however, today, as the reality of another opportunity passed set in, I realized that it's a huge reality in my life that no one (minus the husband unit and a few good friends) ever really asks about. But it is what it is... and it definitely weighs more heavily on my mind than anything else. I'm not asking for sympathy and I've yet to go off the deep edge of being obsessed or super stressed. But at the same time we're coming to a point where Chris and I have to make "decisions" and it's always nice to be able to verbalize that type of thing... if not just for our own sake, but also to hear from people who have gone through the same thing, or as a record of our experience for others who will ultimately go through it themselves one day.

Sure, some of it is personal, but don't worry, I'm still me.

I'll start you out easy. Today I bought a basal temperature thermometer. People I know (and actually trust) have been extremely successful with this and it, apparently, can provide helpful information when it comes time to talk more seriously to doctors. One day I'll tell you about my "invisible line of ignorance" that I'm scared to cross for I know I can never return. The thermometer is like putting my toe over the line to test the water on the other side. I'll let you know how that goes.

Good old fashioned random blog

This morning I realized that my nose has a purpose other than for being sick.

Chris had this great idea before bed last night of taking a very steamy shower before bed (steamy, like actually steamy, not steeeeeamy in the other kind of way -- yeah, I had to clarify that one at the time). We steamed for a good half hour, I choked down a few Tylenol Cold PM, we watched a really bad movie ("Gracie" -- some girl soccer movie -- as if I didn't start out not being a fan of soccer enough, somehow that movie made me dislike it even more), and then I slept like a rock. Minus waking up in the middle of the night sweating like a pig (a fever breaking perhaps?), I slept better than I have in quite a few days.

And then I woke up with the ability to smell again!

Gasp!

That sensation only lasted for about five minutes, and the rest of the day was spent at work feeling pretty crappy.

But I see a deliciously smelling light at the end of the tunnel.

Yay.

So anyway.
***********
Here are some cute pictures from Christmas that my mom sent me a little while back and I've been meaning to post. The first is of Chris and I before our Christmas Eve ride, the next is of us making deliciously gourmet cookies, and the next is of the fam (minus one brother and sister-in-law and mom who is taking the picture), and the last is me ripping it up on guitar hero. Yes. I'm awesome.




****************
I haven't told any funny kid stories in a while so I feel the blog is due. So here's a quick one:

(Chris and I were watching "What Not to Wear" the other night and there was a teacher on there. The hosts made some comment like "you don't want your students learning style from you, do you?" To which we laughed. And Chris made some snide comment like "well, lucky for your kids, they are too little to notice style" (muahahaha, my husband is so funny). That would've been a descent sarcastic comment until I came back with -- "you'd think, wouldn't you?" After which I told him the following story which he immediately told me to blog about...)
I have this little guy who is generally the subject of all of my kid-stories this year. He's just a mess. I have come to love him, but he's seriously a mess. He comes from a pretty poor home. Our school has uniforms and his little sweatshirt was getting pretty nasty. It was dirty and had holes in it. The funniest holes were the home-made thumb-holes. I LOVE shirts that have thumb holes... I honestly think it's more of a comforting feeling than a comfortable feeling, but I would have all shirts with thumb holes if possible, however only have one that I wear to work on occasion (as seen in this picture -- also sent by mom).

One day I realized that this little guy had his thumbs sticking out of the cuff of his sweatshirt. He caught me looking at them and he exclaimed "LOOK! My shirt is like your shirt!" So that was cute. One day he was down in the office and they noticed his holey/gross shirt, so they gave him a new one. He came upstairs, proud as could be of his brand new sweatshirt. It wasn't ten minutes later that I look over and see him fiddling under his table with his scissors. Guess what? His new shirt has thumb holes too. Turns out I do influence the fashion of 7 year old... boys.
**********
P.S. Our new grassroots biking team is slowly getting off the ground, and if you've ever wondered who the random people are that I mention, check out Chris's new "interview" section of Ride Against The Machine. He'll be adding people every few days. I think it's a really cool idea.

Urgh

Right now it is 5:00 pm, 17 hours into the day.

I have, literally, slept for 15 of those 17 hours.

And this is after doing absolutely nothing for all of our four day weekend and sleeping basically all of yesterday minus going to my masters class.

Chris is almost better. In fact, he's out riding in the freaking cold right now for an undetermined amount of time. So basically he's better minus a few sniffles.

And I am still in my pj's.

To my own credit, I guess Chris felt bad starting Friday and I didn't start feeling bad until Sunday, but still. I want to be better and out riding (ok, maybe not out riding in this cold but at least riding the trainer for a little while). In fact, I'm so sick of "resting" that I am pondering getting on the trainer and just spinning my legs for a little while despite my better judgement.

I believe Chris is even close to moving past the "poor thing, what can I do" phase and into the "ok, get better already" phase and I don't blame him one little bit. Tomorrow I will be going back to work no matter what because I can no longer B.S some sub plans with the little I left out on Thursday.

I'm getting restless... but not really better. Ah, the aggravating irony of illness.

I'm annoyed.

Wii are sick :(

Chris and I are both sick.

This never happens.

What was supposed to be an incredibly adventurous four day weekend for the two of us has instead found us being lazy in bed, on the couch, and playing the wii until our eyes are burning.

MLK day will find us in a similar position as right now -- sniffling, coughing, and whining on the couch.

Sad.

Reality Check

This morning I took the dog out for a walk and the weather was BEAUTIFUL.

It couldn't have been nicer.

Originally my plan had been to stick in a movie and ride a long trainer session today, but since the weather was so nice I knew I couldn't pass up a chance for a nice outside ride.

After bringing the dog back, I quickly changed and packed up the D70 for an outside ride adventure with Monster Camera. I intended to connect some trails together to find some nice scenary, take breaks to play with the camera, and just enjoy the afternoon outside.

However, as I rode away from the house, I noticed the air felt colder than when I had walked the dog... despite now wearing winter tights, booties, long sleeved jersey, coat, hat, and heavy gloves.

Ok, I'll warm up as I ride.

But after a few minutes, it wasn't warming up. I hit the dirt trails and they were so tacky that it felt like riding through a can of Play-Doh. So I diverted back onto the road, changing my plans and route to meet the conditions. I kept pedaling (into a monster headwind by the way) and looked up and noticed that a big block of dark clouds had moved overhead. Ah, yes, the weather was changing. Quickly.

So, here I am, after a whoppin' 30 minute ride, back in the warmth of my own home. Despite the gorgeous weather this morning, I guess it is the middle of January after all.

Tomorrow the trainer and I have an 86 minute date while we watch "Open Season" together.

Sigh.

An ode to the 60 pound bike...

One of the perks of teaching first grade is having a genuine excuse to read super cute little kid books.

Right now we are studying "All-About" books...aka informational texts. Today I was excited to read a book called "Dogs" to my kids during reading time. Not just because it was about dogs, but it used one particular dog as an example that looks a lot like Turbo. It shows pictures of this Golden as a new pup and as it grows up. It was the definition of "super cute."

Here comes the best part of the book though...

One section of the book is called something like "What Does My Dog Look Like?" The section opens with a picture of the pup sitting next to a boot and it says "When I brought my dog home, it was about the size of a cat and weighed the same as a big bag of sugar." Ok, cute. I'd agree with that fact.

But then...

"Now that my dog is grown up, it weighs the same as a bicycle!"

No kidding.

And it shows a picture of a full-grown Golden Retriever next to a bicycle. As a point of reference, our dog is a full-grown, male Golden Retriever who is on the smaller side for a Golden at 63 pounds.

Here's my kids' reaction at hearing this page "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAHHHHHH!" To them, the comparison was not unreasonable... they couldn't believe a dog could weigh THAT much! After all, a bicycle is quite the ginormous machine to a six year old.

But in the end, it was an adult that wrote the book...what kind of ghetto bike does Author ride that weighs as much as a Golden -- even a small Golden?

Think of the buffness you'd have huffing that sucker up a hill.

Dang.

Uninspired

The week has been long. Not bad, just long.

I'm lacking inspiration for a blog today but have an incredibly uneventful weekend approaching and hope to catch up on some blogging during that time.

For now:

Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts; the sight of the deep-blue sky and the clustering stars above seems to impart a quiet to the mind.
Jonathan Edwards

Memories and Resolutions

Happy New Year to all in bloggerland! We are in St. Louis enjoying a relaxing week with the family and dogs. This morning Chris was attacked in bed by a fluffy herd of flying golden pig-dogs. Pictures will come soon but the camera is currently with Chris as he rides his bike over in Illinois with his dad -- I chose to opt out of the fun ride because of the extreme chill in the air... now I feel lazy but at least I'm warm :)

As the calendar has now turned over 2008, I can look back on another year. This year has been full of so many adventures that it'd be impossible to list them all here. The best part about blogs is that you get to publicly make statements and then look back on them later and laugh at your naivety or marvel at your wisdom. Here's what I wrote at this time last year, looking forward to '07 (with my current comments in blue):

Looking forward to 2007? You bet! If all goes as planned, '07 will be a huge year for me. That it was. I've realized my abilities and talents and this year I am going to do my best to challenge myself to accomplish things that I've always wanted to do. I am semi-committed to give time trials on the road bike a whirl. Yay! We'll see how training and trying out aero-bars feels. I like the idea of a 20something minute race although getting over the fear of going fast is going to be my biggest challenge. Surprisingly, going fast in aero-bars wasn't as scary as I thought. While I'm still not super speedy, I can now consistently cruise over 20 mph on a road bike without thinking twice. I gained some serious confidence on both types of bikes this year. I am also semi-committed to thinking about registering for the winter park mountain bike series. I need to get out and push myself on the mountain bike... once I am convinced that I'll get something other than last place in my age group, I will think about committing. I'm glad I did this series. Even if I paid more for not committing to the entire series right away, I am impressed that I went back for all seven races. I also didn't get last -- I'm still quite proud of my 2nd place finish in the series. I'm excited about conquering a few more of those mountains that I look at out the window everyday. We climbed 8 more. Wow. Chris and I are hoping to expand the family this year and find out whether or not a guy who rides on an SLR for 6000+ miles can really have babies successfully ;) Well, I guess we still haven't proved that this can happen, but at least it's been fun trying! I've gotten better at being patient and being genuinely happy for the countless number of friends that have popped up pregnant while we've been disappointed every month. This entire experience has been a challenge to my personality but with good results. Should be a big year. Even if things don't work out as planned, I'm sure there will be memories galore in the coming 12 months. Good or bad, we'll get through them with grace and plenty of pictures! That's right. We have over 1,000 new pictures from 2007 and many many many new memories.

So there we have it. I met and exceeded many of my goals and expectations for 2007. I even managed to deal with some unexpected challenges as well. As I head into 2008, I hope for much of the same. My goal is to challenge myself in the mountains on my bike and on my feet. Perhaps I will talk myself into more mountain bike racing outside of the Winter Park series (for sure a tour of the White Rim. Kokopelli tour too? Colorado trail on bikes or feet?)... Maybe by 2009, our 14er count will be up to 20 -- is there a true winter climb coming in 2008? I already know of a few changes coming to the Plesko house in 2008 and with these changes everything will be challenged; however, I'm sure that no matter what happens, we'll make it through (once again) with "grace and plenty of pictures!"

I greet the new year with my favorite "non-people/animals" pictures of 2007:

Some fancy named stove made out of cans but also a really cool picture!
This year we managed to have a Friday morning Starbucks date almost every week (except for over the summer).
Our car looked like this more often than not. Only now we can add a busted taillight to the picture! On this particular weekend we climbed one day, rode the next and camped the weekend away.
Fall on Culebra Peak. Scary road but beautiful scenery!
Frozen stream on Mt. Bierstadt. Maybe one of our less successful/less fun climbs of the year but it was quite pretty.
Ah, our failed White Rim trip. By far the most adventurous adventure of the year. I'm all for more adventures but let's hope this one doesn't repeat itself in 2008.
Thank you for reading another year's worth of rambling!

Ho ho ho!

Christmas was great this year.

In the last few years, I've struggled with Christmas -- being past the little-kid-excitement phase and before the I'm-excited-for-my-own-kids phase. Luckily, this year we got a tree, planned a great Christmas day dinner, and I played Christmas music on my XM starting back at the end of November. This year, the Christmas spirit wasn't going to pass me by!

Despite it being on the same day every year, Christmas eve snuck up on me as always. Christmas eve brought an early drive down to my parents' house, a nice 45 mile bike ride on the C470/Centennial Trail from their house to Bear Creek Park near Morrison and back, some cookie decorating, dinner, and presents with the family. Before we knew it, it was late and it was time to head home.

I am absolutely a traditionalist when it comes to holidays, so when we woke up Christmas morning to this on our deck, I couldn't help but get that little-kid feeling back. There's nothing like a true (and surprising!) white Christmas:
Chris and I woke up giddy around 7:30 and ran downstairs to use our new four-slice toaster to make some Eggos. Turbo seemed to know it was a special day and he bounced around like a kid. He even decided to put his new ball (a gift from my dad) in his food bowl and eat around it. He's never done this before, and it was really cute.
Santa came while we were sleeping!
You will only see me this happy at 7:30 am once a year.
Santa brought Turbo a doggy-bagel wrapped in paper! He had a great time trying to figure out how to get it in his mouth.
Turbo's other favorite part of Christmas was shredding the paper from the gifts. Watch out for hurricane Turbo! Chris was way into reading his new GPS's instruction manual.When your family is not in town, you have to experience Christmas over the phone. Chris was happy to talk to everyone and flip through his new "Ski the 14ers" book.
As I enjoyed my new Smartwool hat and socks, Garth Brooks ultimate hits CD, Polar Express book, and annual Victoria's Secret goodies, I also enjoyed a delicious Christmas cookie. Turbo is coveting it in this picture.
Awwwwwwwwww. Last year we hoped we'd be at least pregnant by this Christmas, but instead I have my sweet pup to admire :)
We bought a 17 lb turkey after Thanksgiving last year and it has sat in our freezer ever since. We finally decided to make it and after an early morning head-to-toe cleaning of the turkey juiced refrigerator, we started the meal. We had a yummy mixed green salad with feta cheese, apples, and walnuts, some baked mashed potatoes with a feta/brie/parmesan cheese mixture, lemon infused turkey, canned cranberry sauce, and homemade gravy. Yummmmmm. At 17 pounds, we'll be eating turkey with every meal for the rest of the week. Turbo's special meal included "whoops" turkey and part of his doggy bakery treat from my dad.

To burn off the turkey we battled, pretty much all day, on our new Wii. I discovered that I'm terrible at Wii tennis, but at least pretty good at Wii bowling and baseball. The highlight had to be working together to knock off enemy tanks on one of the most elementary games that came with the remote... I also enjoyed the updated Duck Hunt game. Tonight we'll probably break open Super Mario Galaxy and see how we do. The Wii is a lot of fun -- luckily I have a dad who can find impossible finds.

Christmas is over for now. The tree will come down this week and the Christmas music has been replaced by my new CDs. Luckily for us, we will be leaving Friday for St. Louis to have a great New Years with the rest of our family.

Cheers to many more Friday Starbucks Breakfast Dates...
And snowy adventures in the wild!