Wednesday, January 2, 2013

November


Two New Family Members!

In November we "inherited" two miniature schnauzers.  Abby and Maddy.  Pete's friend, Mike, had to move and could not take them with him, so......here they are.

They are cute and cuddly, have a slight barking problem and are learning how to have free roam of the house without using part of it as a bathroom.  They follow Pete around like a momma duck; it is so cute.  The girls are having a blast with them and I love that they don't shed :) 









Pops and Nana came down to Burleson to watch one of Reese's Volleyball games and we saw this donkey on the side of the road!!  No way!  Of course we HAD to get a picture of Pops with it.  The guy was charging $10 (holy cow!) but we knew we were not going to pass up the opportunity.  I wonder how much we were willing to pay?....




Reese Plays Volleyball

Reese had a fun season of volleyball.  She is not sure if she will play again because she is interested in gymnastics as well and there is just not enough time for both.  She improved so much over the few weeks of play.  Who knows, maybe we will see her back out on the court one day.




Soren Runs in the Junior Olympic Cross Country Races!

This was an exciting, last minute adventure for Soren.  Pete found out that the Junior Olympics Cross Country was having a district race here in the metroplex so he asked Soren if she was interested in competing.  She jumped at the opportunity and came in 2nd place, advancing her to the regional race the following week.  She faced a tougher field at regionals but did VERY well and qualified to run at the national meet in Albuquerque, NM!  Amazing.  Soren, you are amazing.  So happy for you!




Sweet Reese.  Just had to post a pic of Reese enjoying some puppy chow :)



Grandma Freda

Reese and I went with Nana to take Grandma Freda home after her visit for Thanksgiving.  I always love these pics taken on her swing.  We have them from 3 generations now.  Pretty cool.





Junior Olympic Cross Country National Championship
Alubquerque, NM

This is so amazing to me.  My daughter qualified to run in the championship race.  This was all on very short notice and less than a month before Christmas, so we decided that Pete would work the West Texas area that week and Soren would fly out  on Friday for the race but Reese and I would stay home (last minute flights aren't cheap!)

On Friday morning as we were getting ready to head for the airport, Soren is talking a little funny and finally admits that her throat is hurting pretty bad.  Dang it!  Of all days!  I assured her that everyone would understand that she couldn't go because she was sick and she said she had no intentions of staying home!  I called Pete and he looked up the closest emergency care clinic to the airport and Soren and I headed for DFW.  I was able to walk her all the way to her gate and made sure she was situated and ready to board and then I left.  As I was leaving the airport Nana texts me and asks what gate Soren was flying out of?  Why?  Well, because Pops was going to try to get on standby on the flight!  So cool!  Soren was all settled into a seat, minding her own business, when "some guy comes and throws his bag down on top of mine and sits right next to me".  Being the kind person she is, Soren doesn't even look up but continues reading until the guy imposes enough that she has no choice but to glance his way.  "And it was Pops!"  She was so excited.  What a neat surprise.

A safe flight later and Pops and Soren are picked up by Pete to head to the doctor to find out that Soren has strep :( 

That evening was the opening ceremony and parade of athletes.  Soren is in Region 12.


view from the hotel





Race Day!

Soren is still not well, but she is so happy to be there.  It turns out to be a beautiful day to run!


warming up




lined up ready to go!




A job well done, Soren!
She ended up 92nd overall and 5th from the state of Texas!  Woot!


a stop at Grandma Freda's on the way home.




October

The 3rd Grade Musical:  Bones

North Joshua has the best music teacher in the world!  Mrs. Boydston makes music so much fun and the kids love her to death.  She does an amazing job each year with the musicals and this year lived up to the challenge as well.  The kids did a play about a skeleton in a science classroom that gets knocked over and all of the bones have to be put back together in order.  Super cute.  Reese had a solo part!  Wow, she continues to amaze me.

Reese and Trinity


 Reese's teacher, Mrs. Sullivan, played one of the janitors that knocked over the skeleton.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

September Pics

Labor Day goodies

We always get together at Pops and Nana's house for a pool party and cookout.  My sweet Soren decided that she wanted to make custom cupcakes for everyone.  She had so much fun!  Thank you, Soren, for making a great day even sweeter.






TTTT

The Texas Time Trials.  Wow.  What an experience!  For a full report, visit my training blog.  Short version:  I was on a two person team for the 12 hour time trials in Glen Rose.  It poured rain and I had a blast!  Will definitely be doing this one again!

My poor shriveled toes!  They were soaking wet all day.
 Base camp was inside my van due to all of the rain.  So glad I had the space to spread out!
 A happy, wet, finisher.  Our team was 1st in our division!  No picture of my teammate because by the time I finished the last lap she was dry and warm and I didn't want to make her miserable just for a picture :)




Cross Country


Soren is off to an unbeatable stop to the cross country season.  Undefeated so far!  Go Soren!

Soren and Tori Tucker




First Day of School!! 8/27/2012

Fall 2012.  8th grade and 3rd grade.  Here we go!  Sending off my beautiful girls for another great year.





HHH 8/25/2012

The Hotter N Hell Hundred.  One of my favorite traditions!  This year the family added yet another HHH finisher.  Zach completed the full 100 miles after riding a bike a total of 3 times prior to the tour.  Holy Cow!  Nice job, Zach!  Now we can boast 5 family members have done this ride.  So cool!

lined up at the start.  25,000+ riders, ready to roll!

 I had a great ride this year.  I don't know if it was the new electrolyte drink or if it was just a good day, but my legs felt better than they ever have on a 100 mile ride.  It was awesome.  Also loved the new course that took us through the air force base.




We chilled in the shade for a while after the ride and talked about how blessed we are as a family.  It is so amazing that we have been given the opportunity to do things like this together.  We do not take them for granted!

 Sometimes sitting after such a strenuous workout is the worst thing you can do for your legs!  Pops had a hard time getting back up :)

 As always, the Burleson gang was there, too! 
 Faithful Nancy.  Always by my side for a long ride!

Back to School August 24, 1201

The Kool-Aid hair dying was so much fun this summer!  However, we never expected that it was permanent!  Here it was, the weekend before school starts and the red has barely faded at all!  We have used all kinds of home remedies and special shampoos made to get color out of hair; the Joshua schools do not allow anything that is not a normal color and they will send you home until it is out!  Oh no!  So off we went to chop off some hair :(

These were pretty dramatic changes.  The girls have grown their hair quite long and much of it had to be cut off to get all of the red out.  Soren also had the added problem of dye on her bangs so Ben had to work some magic to make it disappear.  It took a while, but the final results were beautiful.  Ben never lets us down!