Catch-up

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...

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...

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

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

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?

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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!

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!

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

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

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

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...

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

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...

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!