Taxes, Snow Caves, and Knitting... oh my!

Luckily I haven't been eaten by the Tiger since Thursday, so this should be a more upbeat post...

Thursday we had dinner with my brother and his wife at their apartment downtown. Despite my pessimistic attitude going into the evening, we had a great time. They made a tasty beef stew with a couple delicious bottles of wine -- just what I needed. We had some good conversation about the "good old days" of the first Nintendo, Echo the Dolphin, The Oregon Trail, college parties, and embarassing drunken moments. Jim and I have always been pretty good friends considering we're siblings and 4 years apart but unfortunately life has taken us on busy roads lately and we haven't had a chance to hang out. It was a fun night and I hope we do it again soon.

This weekend has been a much needed break in our world that usually revolves around bikes. Chris spent the whole weekend with me -- we took a fun trip to the yarn store in Boulder followed by a delicious brunch at Lucille's and then a quick jaunt to the mall to get some clothes for my cousin's wedding in two weeks. We watched a few movies (I realized I've watched 4 Steve Martin movies in the past 7 days), did a little trainer riding, got to bed early, and slept in both days. Today we were more productive around the house... laundry, bills, cleaning, and taxes. YAY TAXES! Last year the ***** government stole my hard earned savings (aka "the baby fund") to pay for taxes but we caught a break and are getting a refund this year that will pay the baby fund back plus some. We are adults, we do taxes... we are still a bit immature, seeing as we cheered or booed the whole way through the process. Luckily this year we came out on top!

One of the highlights of the weekend was watching Turbo discover the snow cave out front. As Chris shoveled away the snow from our 6th snow storm in 6 weeks, I took Turbo out for a little play time. I think he caught the smell of his daddy and burrowed through the new snow to find the snow cave that Chris built a few weeks back. He wasn't scared and jumped right in, excited to find his own little oasis in the yard. I've decided that if Chris ever has to hide out in a snowcave on an expedition, I'm sending Turbo along with the search party. He had a pretty good sniffer for once. Here are the pictures:






Another exciting part of the weekend was my abundance of new knitting projects! I'm currently working on a baby hat for a cousin's new baby due this month -- it's cute and coming along but a true knitter needs more than one project! I got some double pointed needles to start a hat for myself using some delicious Manos yarn that I bought a while back. It'll be striped pink and gray but I'm wondering if I did it right seeing as I highly doubt this will fit on my head when it's done. I've stalled for a few days while I can get some knitting advice from a fellow teacher.

I also started a scarf for a kid that I had in my class last year. He's in the "emotionally disturbed" classroom but one of the cutest kids I've ever met. He asked for a scarf from the aid that works with him (after reading "The Mitten Tree"), so I've started one out of "bwoo" his favorite color. It'll be an anonymous gift but I'm sure he'll be excited about it. I've knitted this much so far today:

I also got some super cute baby pink yarn for a hat for a friend's baby that is due this month, but I have to finish my other one so I can use the needles...


Well, that's it for now. I hope you all have weeks where you are the Tiger and not his lunch.

Some days you're the tiger...

Some days the tiger eats you for lunch.

Just call me tiger meat. Today was just one of those days. One of those days that I just could not control my bad mood. All started out good. Actually, I was in a great mood when I got up. Was in a great mood on the way to work despite a huge accident near the highway entrance that slowed me up considerably. The first couple of hours of school were good. Then something inside me snapped and I've been in a terrible mood ever since. Can't pinpoint why. Haven't been able to make it better. We are off to have dinner with my brother and his wife in Denver -- while I'm not at all in the mood, I'm sure it'll be fun and nice to see them (seeing as we haven't really gotten together to hang out since they got engaged, oh, about two years ago). Maybe it will snap me out of my mood. It better, otherwise Chris might volunteer to leave town again in the very near future just to escape the tiger's wrath... muahahahaha.

Deep Thoughts Or Just Bored... HMMM?

I must preface this blog by saying that Chris is out of town for the 3rd of the past 4 days and won't be home for another two. I'm a little bored. A little nostalgic. A little sleepy.

Interesting thought provoking comment on Dave C's blog (http://bedrockandparadox.blogspot.com): "Yesterday with each encounter the obligatory questions and looks: what gear, tires, brakes? Are they like dogs, and rapidly evolve to look like their masters? Yesterday seemed to bear that out."

Here's what I'm thinking... he's right. I never thought about the interesting characteristics that Chris and his bikes all have in common. Physically and metaphorically, it's a little creepy to see the similarities. No wonder Chris and his bikes get along so well.

*Take the Monocog for example. It's skinny and lightweight (two different things by the way). It's unique and takes the right kind of person to understand its intriguing characteristics. It's simple but loved for its simplicity by those that understand it. It was cheap to buy, cheap to mantain, but expensive to upgrade. It rides through anything, appropriate for its intended purpose or not. It's loved so much that it's allowed to live in the house even if it does make a mess of the clean kitchen floor. It takes a lickin' and keeps on tickin'.

* The Fuel has one specific purpose: kick butt when things are too difficult for the simple life of the Monocog. The Fuel is contrary to it's counter-part, the Monocog, but it serves its purpose and is a life saver when it is dug out of the basement. It survives obstacles that nothing should be able to overcome. Parts, both internal and external, crack and break but they are replaced with some TLC.

* The orange road bike. What can I say? It has a tendency to look a bit ghetto and out of place among the fancy shmancy road bikes in their matching outfits and prissy attitudes in road races. The greatest thing about the orange bike, it shows those prissy bikes what's up and generally kicks most of their butts. Ghetto shmetto, it's what drives the bike, not what color or age it is.

* The Pugsley. Well, hmmm. Doesn't look like Chris. Fat tires, heavy bike. Nothing about Chris is fat or heavy. Hmmm? I'll have to think on that one.
(Chris: I am purposely leaving out the Time Trial bike -- for some reason I've yet to come up with, it doesn't count)

Physically, the bikes share some characteristics with Chris. In a deep, insightful way, the bikes represent Chris to the tee. Weird. What about my bikes? Do they represent or look like me? I think so. To an extent at least. Luckily I only have two bikes to analyze...

* The Blue Fuel. Pretty and girly looking but can still kick some butt when it wants to. Often underestimated. Quiet but packs quite a punch.


* The Black road bike. Sleek, lightweight, a little lazy but when taken out it goes a long way. Shifts gears nicely and without complaint.

What a cool concept. I've been told by friends that Turbo is the perfect dog for Chris and I -- he's blonde, cute, athletic, intelligent... (their words, not mine). I never thought about the bikes being the same way.
Thanks to Dave C for some entertainment in a horribly borring night.

P.S: I don't mind being lonely but absolutely hate being alone. Interesting paradox.

Good Morning Nobody

**EDIT: I had written a nice long blog about how much I hate being alone and then Chris just called and said they cancelled their ride today but didn't explain why. He's informed me that nobody is hurt and they didn't get arrested, but the weather wasn't what stopped them, so I hope things are ok. I get the feeling that the ride didn't even get started, but I'm not sure. He sounds really disappointed and doesn't know whether he'll be coming home today or staying and riding a little tomorrow (which makes me think at least the bikes didn't get stollen overnight or something). Poor guy. As much as I bitch about him leaving and doing this stuff, when he doesn't get to do it it bums me out too. I love him and want him to be happy. Poor Christopher. :( Maybe going one or both of the next two weekends isn't such a bad idea. I want to make him feel better and I'm afraid my post would've only made him feel worse. Instead, here are some nice pictures from the last time Chris made his adventure through White Rim...



Here's a cute picture of Turbo:

Smile my Chris. The elusiveness of these rides are what make them epic. You'll be back. You'll conquer. I'm scared for you right now but thanks for telling me things are fine and not to worry. Come home and I'll give you a hug and dog and I will take care of you.

Me Quiz

A friend of mine made one of these and I definetely learned a few things about her that I didn't otherwise know. If you are bored, try it out. Then make one so I can learn a few random things about you. Ahh, the stpuid things you do while it's 2 degrees outside and the husband is out riding his bike.

Title Take my quiz! Take This Quiz | See Scores | Make Own Quiz

Me? Distracted? Never!

I've sat down to write this blog for, oh, say, 4 days. I have so many funny new stories from my little monsters that I've been meaning to write down before I forget. Today I got home and have been determined to start the blog finally... then I got distracted. Again. I was looking for a good quote from "Everything I Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten" when I stumbled across the author's website. Robert Fulghum is now one of my new favorite people. He writes some hillarious but very insightful and intelligent stuff. Sounds like the kind of guy I'd like to sit and have coffee with. Read through the journal entries... there's some good stuff (I especially liked the flaming broom story).

Anyway, let's see if I can get in a few of the funny kid stories. Some days I can't believe I actually get paid to have such a great time. 5-7 year olds are a unique breed of human beings. Put 22 of them in the same room after two and a half weeks of being trapped in their houses by snow and the hillarious moments start rolling in...

#1: My kids walk in from winter break and the first thing they say is "GUESS WHAAAAAAT!!!!!! It SNOWED!!!" Really? It snowed? I hadn't noticed the 54 inches in my front yard...

#2: I have a kid in my class who is a bit of a trouble maker. He is sweet, in his own precious way, but he likes to teach the other kids bad words, touch their butts, inform the other kids about how one of the Broncos got shot, etc. He comes in Tuesday morning just sobbing. I tried to stop him on the way in the door but finally had to basically clothes-line the kid to get him to pay any attention to me. I asked him what was wrong and if he was ok. After a good solid 3 minutes of his sobbing, he gets out "I lost my backpack!" I look back, spin him around in front of the mirror so he could see what was on his back and say "this one?" He looks on his back and goes "Oh! Awesome!" and went about life like nothing had happened. Kindergarteners.

#3: We were talking about opposites in class. I was shocked at how great the kids were at generating the opposite of a word. We did it for a few minutes and I ran out of ideas. "Hmmm...What's the opposite of... hmmmmm..." One kid shouts out "BRONCOS!" So I let out a little laugh and said "well, what's the opposite of the Broncos?" A few kids said "Uhh, the Buffaloes?" When one kid shouts out "NO! The Raiders!" Hahaha. I gave him a big high five for that one. That's what I would've come up with! That kid is awesome.

#4: I've been ridiculously sick for the past 10 days. Sicker than I remember being in a very long time. I'm starting to get better, but I still have coughing attacks that last a few minutes. Yesterday I was telling the kids about what they were going to be doing during writing. Then the cough attack hit. My eyes were watering, face was red, the whole shabang. A few of my little ones were so worried they were near tears. Poor guys. Anyway, after 5 minutes of the death cough, I started back up telling them what they were going to do for writing. Again, started coughing. I laughed and said that my throat clearly didn't want them to do the activity. I made my throat talk and say "Nooo, don't make them do the paper!" -- they laughed and then one kid yelled out "Don't listen to it! Don't listen to your throat!" Haha. If we all had that kind of passion for learning...

Man they are cute. As much as they can drive me to the end of all the patience you can imagine one human being ever possessing, they crack me up.

The little monsters light up each day with their goofy outlook on the world. I've started to think that 5 year olds would make the greatest world leaders. Life is simple through their eyes. I read the story of Ruby Bridges and Martin Luther King today -- despite incredible prejudice happening today against them and their families (and it can bring you to tears with what they pick up on -- "why did someone yell at me from a car telling me to go get a burrito?" -- people are morons)... anyway, despite what they go through, their little faces went so sad hearing the stories about segregation. The MLK book included that someone shot and killed him. To which I got the response "how could that happen? How could someone kill such a nice man? He didn't do anything wrong."

In teaching I get to see that all humans start out good. They start out hopeful, innocent, bright-eyed, sweet, and caring. I hate to think about what they go through before they become jaded adults. Fulghum is right, everything you need to know, you learn in kindergarten. If we could just use those skills as adults, the world would be a much better place. Hmmmm...

Moments

Well, Christmas and New Years have come and gone too quickly. I can't believe it's already 2007! I feel like it was yesterday that the world was spazzing out about turning 2000.

Looking back on '06 brings many good memories. I climbed my first mountains, "raced" my first mountain bike race, completed a metric century on the road bike in Buena Vista (and what a buena vista it was!), learned to knit, finished off my first year of teaching with a bang and took on a big challenge to start off my second year, went to California for the first time, got both of my brothers married off without a hitch, lots of bike riding and home redecorating, bought a new car, and learned to be a support crew for hubby in Park City (by myself might I add -- I take all of the credit for the 3rd place finish), Leadville, and in Moab (with wonderful friends and family thank goodness -- picture me trying that alone -- haha). I've learned to let Chris do his hobbies that most people see as crazy. I've learned to drop him off at a trailhead and hope and pray that he comes back a few days later. I've learned to sleep by myself in the warm bed while he sleeps in the yard in -5 degree weather. I've realized I am a much more patient, forgiving, understanding, and capable person than I ever gave myself credit for.

Looking forward to 2007? You bet! If all goes as planned, '07 will be a huge year for me. 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. 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. 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 excited about conquering a few more of those mountains that I look at out the window everyday. 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 ;) 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!

Thanks to Michelle for taking what I consider to be the picture of the year. This is the face of pride, relief, success, exhaustion, and adrenaline all rolled into one:


Here's to happiness, hope, and warm feet in '07!

Dreaming of a white Christmas?

Here are some pretty funny pictures from our blizzard that has completely shut down Colorado. Every highway has been closed in and out of the state, mail service has been shut down for a few days, school was closed yesterday in anticipation of the storm and was closed today and maybe tomorrow (yay!), most businesses are closed, and it's still snowing. We've got a couple feet at our house with bigger drifts in most spots. Enjoy the pictures. It's a whopper of a storm:

Chris leaving for work at 7:30 on his snow bike:

11:00 when Chris got sent home from work:

Chris leaving on a bike ride (yep, a bike ride) around 12:30. He made it to the end of the subdivision in about an hour and a half, pushed 4 cars out from being stuck, and came home.

2:30:


Turbo loves the snow!

Our front door and car last night around 9:


Me and Turbo on the deck -- I'm 5'6" and that's a 70 pound Golden in snow past his head:

The door from our bedroom to the deck:

This morning:

Mom and Dad's pictures:



That's it for now, still snowing! Chris and I are driving to St. Louis (hopefully) tomorrow for Christmas, so we hope the plows do their job! Merry Christmas everyone!

*****EDIT: HOLY SH*T! Merry Christmas to me! I saw that they have officially closed school tomorrow which means I got an extra three days tacked on to my Christmas break. SWEEEEEEET!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I FINALLY got a snow day! It's been more than 15 years, but I finally woke up, got dressed, and found out school was cancelled. SWEET! I'm betting school will be cancelled again tommorrow as we are expected to have about 2 feet from this blizzard by noon tomorrow. Chris just called and his work has officially closed too, so he's on his way home to refuel and then be a crazy man and go on a bike ride. Schools are cancelled, businesses are closed, I-70 is closed completely to the Kansas border, they are talking about closing I-25 south of Denver through the springs, flights are cancelled, even the post office is cancelling deliveries. Only 3 days left until two weeks off for Christmas break and so far, at least one of them has been cancelled. I need the time to clean the house, pack, and get ready for our trip on Friday afternoon. So far it's looking like this storm should be past by the time we start driving east. Yay! SNOW DAY!!!

(Pictures of psycho-chris and the quickly accumulating snow to come later today -- ooh, and my new knitting project)

Tagged

I've been tagged by the hubby! 5 things people probably don't know about me (although this is a little humerous because hubby is really the only person that reads and comments on my blog with any sort of regularity and I'm sure I would have to spend a long time to think of even one thing he doesn't already know about me):

1) I didn't get asked to my senior prom and my oldest brother knew how bummed I was so he invited me up to Boulder (where he was a junior in college) and he took me to a fancy dinner and drove me around Flagstaff. The night with him was much better than prom ever would've been. It's appropriate that he set me up with Chris less than a year later.

2) I've never had an ear infection, broken bone, or stitches. Up until recently, I hadn't ever even had an antibiotic.

3) I taught myself to ride a bike by sitting on a neighbor's bike and then riding away. My parents were so surprised that they put me in the car and went and bought me my first bike -- purple banana seat with basket in the front and tassels off the side. I was awesome.

4) I have 40something first cousins -- fully blood related too (I always use this one as "no one knows this about me" so I'm sure everyone knows this about me)

5) I was awarded a scholarship in college for appearing to be a promising elementary school teacher -- something I didn't apply for but was supposedly nominated for by some professor in college -- it would've been huge news except Chris proposed two days later and it got lost in the excitement. That was the greatest week ever.

P.S: I was soooooooooo cute (this was at my very first "bike race" -- darn 2nd place!)


Now I feel sad because I have no one to tag that hasn't already been there and done that. If you're reading this and haven't been tagged, consider yourself tagged.

"Togetherness is the best holiday treat"

Words of wisdom from one of our Dove chocolates today. They really do have great little quotes in those, and the delicious chocolate is the best.

Yesterday Chris and I had a really nice day together.

Breakfast at LePeep (yum!) followed by some Christmas shopping at the mall and then a trip to Boulder where I was abandoned at the yarn store (gasp!) while Chris went on a secret mission to get a present for yours truly. Unfortunately, he won't tell me what it is despite my best efforts and most pathetic sad faces. We got some California Club sandwiches at Jasons Deli and then headed home to see that Turbo had stollen a paper towel roll off the counter and shredded it into a million pieces. Naughty dog. After that, we watched Cars while Chris rode on the trainer and then we went on feasted on some delicious free Qdoba and headed to bed.

It was nice to spend an entire day with the husband. In these training days, a whole day together is rare. I'm looking forward to our trip to St. Louis where we'll have more fun time together. We are both bringing our bikes for a few rides (and if Chris has his way, he'll be riding his a lot more than one would think you would on a vacation). As long as he doesn't get the grand idea to "race" me through Kansas on his bike while I drive, we'll come back still married :)


Here's a funny Christmas story about my silly kids at work...

We read a story called "Oliver Kringle" about a bus driver that looks like Santa but turns out to be Santa's brother. It's all about Santa's family and how they all help out on Christmas. Anyway, at the end of the book, one of my little ones said "this book is nonfiction!" (after all of these months, it is still SO hard for these little guys to understand the difference between fiction and nonfiction, but they pretend they do -- they always apply the overgeneralization that fiction is fake and nonfiction is real).
Here's what followed:

me: "well, if this book was nonfiction, it would be giving us facts and information about Santa, and it's really only telling us a story for fun so I think it's probably fiction"

kid: he got this sad look on his face and said "but it could be real. Santa is real isn't he?"

me: "That's true, but it still seems to be a story that someone made up about him"

kid: (still with a little of a confused and defeated face) "But Santa is real and he could have brothers, we don't know, so it's nonfiction. Santa is real right?"

me: "Yep, you're right, definetely nonfiction"

Oh man. Should've seen that one coming...

Sick day

As of 3 am this morning, I called in a sub and declared today a sick day. Chris and I have both been fighting off a nasty cold -- although he's much better at declaring himself fine even if he feels terrible and it seems to work. I'm mostly a big whiny baby when I feel bad and that probably doesn't help me get better quicker. He's at work and I'm here trying to force myself to find something to eat for breakfast and it's already lunch time. Anyway...

We hosted the after-party for my staff Christmas party on Friday night. A few people stopped over and the whole night was fun. One of the teachers brought her little 5 month old Golden over to play with Turbo. Let's just say that Turbo looked a bit like Cujo by the time the night was finished:


And this was the vicious culpret:

Poor little guy was losing his teeth and ended up bleeding all over Turbo. It was funny to see two adorable goldens look like they had been in such a nasty fight! They loved each other and had a great time.

Well, that's about it. Time to force myself to eat and then lay on the couch. I better be feeling better tomorrow, with all of these planned out of town races of Christopher's (and a certain someone's wedding in February), I'm running dangerously low on days off. Maybe I'll get to puke in front of my students for a nice change. Hmmm....

Tis the Season

I have to say that I love Kohl's. It's awesome. I got 3 oranments for our staff ornament exchange, two huge things of wrapping paper, a mystery present for Chris, and went across the street and got a tasty Jamba Juice all for $20 (which is what the ornaments originally cost). Sweet. I'm super excited!

"She's something when she's one of the guys, something else when she's not"

That's a line from a Garth song that gets me thinking every time it's played. I can't decide if I like it or not. I hear it in the song and it trips me up and I don't even hear the rest of the song. I get stuck on trying to figure out whether or not it makes sense. I get hung up on lines from songs, but usually I get over it after hearing the song enough. This one has stuck.

I feel like it describes me and I feel like I wish it didn't.

I'm am, sadly, much more comfortable being one of the guys. I'll never be able to pull off being the girly girl that I'd love to try out being.

It really hit me this weekend when we were over for a dinner at my parents' house with the family. My brother has married the most gorgeous girly girl. She is shorter and always wears big skinny heels. She usually doesn't take them off, but she did this weekend and I couldn't get over the height and thinness of these heels. They were gorgeous and I would LOVE to be able to wear shoes like that and not look like a total idiot. I realized that I will never be able to pull that off. I picked up the shoes, oggling at them, and my brother said "you could wear those, you're a girl". I immediately came back with "yeah, if I was born with sisters instead of brothers" and he looked at me like I had lost it and said "what about that lady that just walked out called your sister?" I don't think he's ever really realized that he and my other brother were the only sibling influences on my life. I pointed out that she moved out when I was 8 or 9 and didn't have any significant female influence other than taking me to get my ears pierced when I was 12. I've always considered myself the girl amongst a family of boys.

I've never been a tom-boy, never been a girly girl. We had a girls' night out at the Boulder Dinner Theater (great show -- "Crazy For You") and had a really good time. I realized that I have to work to feel equally comfortable being with the girls at a musical as I do with the guys riding bikes or working on cars. I think the reason I can't quite grasp the line "She's something when she's one of the guys, something else when she's not" is that it doesn't give me an answer as to which is better. Is she something good when she's one of the guys and then something not as good when she's not? Is she better when she's not? Am I overthinking it and it's really all about sex like most songs? I feel much more comfortable being the one girl amid a group of guys, then I am being in a group of girls. Urgh. Do I like the line in the song? Is it good or bad? I'm confused. Hmmm...

Stupid dentist...

Not sure what I hate worse, being in pain, or paying $460 to be in pain. I'm impressed with the technology advances over the past two years in the dentistry business. Some very cool stuff that our nice, new dentist was willing to show off. I'm baffled that they can make these awesome digital x-rays that immediately show up on a laptop screen and can blow up as big as they want, yet they still have to use the crappy technology of that hard square thing being shoved into your mouth to get them. No cavities, just losing bone in my jaw so they had to pump it full of some crap to stop that. I am so freaking sick of being in pain and paying for other people to make it worse before it gets better. I guess this is what happens when you're an "adult". Can I go back to being a kid? Little Critter looks so happy to be at the dentist because a) he is going to get some sweet prize at the end or b) his mommy is paying the bill or c) his dentist is some goofy looking bunny and there's a frog on the floor or d) all of the above. Hmmm...