Kaden's kids race pictures

JCR day 2 Kaden - kids race

Salem's race pictures

JCR - day 2 Salem

Jingle Cross Day 1 is in the books!

Great day, chilly, but nice weather over all! Kidsw had a blast cheering everyone on. They loved being in the Grinch's Lair (aka sand pit) and ringing their cow bells. I was running here and there taking pics and video. We stayed the whole day from 8:45 until 3:45 ish to watch all the races. Took a break to grab some KFC though, but back to watch. Great racing all around!!!

Head on over to Keith's blog to read his take on the day!

Tomorrow brings true cross weather...snow!!! Poor Salem has to ride so early too! Ah oh well, he's looking forward to it. We'll have to dress even more warmer!

Black Friday...mass chaos!

Ah Black Friday has arrived!! Too bad the sales all sucked! It was bad because Keith had the day off work, and we had some extra money, but man the stores were not looking promising!

We had some decaf coffee the night before, but I think it's not truly decaf as I was up until almost 1am!

Got up at 3:30 to shower and Keith checked to see if an item I wanted was available online at WM, yeah it was!! No need to shop that store!! Headed to Kohls at 4:15. Walked in and around the store, saw the lines were from each side to the back and crossing and thought NO way was anything so needed that I would stand in line for over 2 hours for! Off to Yonkers. Usually I hit Yonkers at the end of my trip so I never see the door busters. Wow, they do start of with a ton of them! Got a couple things for the kids, used my $10 off $10 coupons and was out. Nice short lines!!

After that was Gordmans. They had some holiday plates I wanted to buy, although they were the same price today and they were the other day, so no big sale there. The first 300 customers got a bag that you could stuff and get 25% off! Of course it had it's exclusions, but I found a really cool red purse and wallet that counted! Plus a couple necklaces and stuffed some webkinz in as well. The big ones were $9.75 and the little ones were $5.65, so I grabbed a couple the kids wanted. Again the line was not too bad, maybe 20 minutes most!

Next was Dicks for the fun of it. Only picked up some toe warmers for this weekend. They had nothing else exciting...could explain why the store was dead and no waiting at any of the registers!

Headed to Staples. This was not a planned trip, but ended up being the most expensive one! They had some memory cards on sale I wanted for my camcorder and camera. Not needed, but nice to have more memory though! Check out lines were really crazy! Ended up getting the 19" monitor they had on sale (great price!), some dvr's, memory cards and ear buds for the kids. Even though the lines were long, everyone was calm and cool. I do think we left at the right time because the free printers you got with your camera purchase had just run out and there was lots of people in line waiting on them. Poor employees!

After Staples was the music store for their 7am opening. Ugh a line!! Only had to wait about 10 minutes, so not too bad. Picked up something for Salem, although have to check with his music teacher to make sure it will work with his instrument. Then on to Walgreens where I picked up a couple lil kinz for stuffers.

And then home for breakfast and a nap!

Later on, Keith went out for a bike ride and the boys and I headed to Family Christian Bookstore. They had some good deals and I needed to get a Bible for a girl we adopted through Salem's school. Ran into a friend of mine who works there, she said it was crazy in the am! We got our goodies (and a few more) and back home, just in time for Keith to get back.

We all went over to a HUGE craft show downtown this afternoon. Found some cool things, couple things for gifts, couple things I want to try and make myself. Kaden was bored by isle 2, lol. But he mustered through it all. Salem saw something he was interested in getting but decided to save his money. After the craft (or crap) show we got back in our car and was driving and heard a weird noise. Keith thought it was just a rock in the rim, but it stayed after driving a short time. So he pulled over and saw a screw was in our tire. UGH! We drove to a safer spot and was able to pull the screw out. It only jabbed into the tread, so that was good!! Darn downtown flooding and crap all over!

Now it was off to Coralville, had 2 hours to spare before it was Jingle Cross registration pick up, so we hit a couple malls. Nothing too exciting. I found a shirt and the boys each bought a webkinz. Otherwise it was just a time killer. Got through registration pick up just fine. Little crazy, but fun. We got to meet Todd and Tony Wells, pro bikers. They were there to sign autographs, so they signed the cow bell we got, the race numbers and Salem's t-shirt. Salem will swim in his, but figure it's his 1st year so we picked one up anyway.

And back home, quick yo-yo dinner everyone to bed! Busy exciting day tomorrow! Keith races in the morning, then the other HBA guy races in the afternoon and the Pro's race after that. So we'll be there all day! Sunday are Salem and Kaden's races. Probably won't stay for the pro race.

I've got a couple pics from tonight, but I'm so tired, I'll put them up tomorrow. Hope I didn't make too much nonsense in this post, eyes are falling alseep as I type, lol.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a wonderful turkey day! Ours was pretty nice. The boys let Keith and I sleep in and Keith let me sleep in even longer!! Totally missed the Macy's parade :(

It was a pretty nice day out. Keith and Salem went for a short bike ride. When they got back Keith and Kaden set up a bike course in the yard with some stakes and caution tape. Kids had a blast doing and riding that!

Dinner was delicious! Not enough turkey though for leftovers :( We made the kids taste a spoonful of mashed potatoes. Kaden ate without too much problems. Salem you thought we were trying to poison him!

After dinner they went back outside to ride until it got dark and then we had to pick up the course.

Fun day, nice and relaxing!

I'm gonna get coal this year!

Oh man, I'm in for it with the guy in the red coat! I'm breaking all sorts of rules this year regarding Christmas! Although, wait, maybe a big fat turkey is going to show up at my bedside...not sure which to be more scared of though. The red coat guy I can bribe with milk and cookies, what can I bribe the big fat turkey with??

So what'd I do that was SO bad?? First off we put the Christmas tree up early, and we even turn it on at night! I have started to open the curtains during the day so the neighbors now know we have our tree up, shame on us! But I do not turn the tree lights on with the curtain open, that's too much! I kept our curtains closed until this weekend, too embarrassed for others to know it was up.

I started making Christmas cookies today. I started with chocolate chip and walnut cookies, not really Christmas ones, but it was in the spirit of Christmas cookie making. Oh they are yummy smelling!!! Sugar cookies are next on the list. I'm making the dough tonight or tomorrow and we'll bake them later.

I also am burning Christmas scented candles. Home Sweet Home and Sparkling Cinnamon from Yankee candle. Great scents!

And I bought Christmas wrapping paper the other week. Walgreens had it buy 1 get 2 free, come on, you can't pass that up no matter what time of the year it is! They had a couple cute designs. Not like I need wrapping paper, I have over 30 rolls from years ago when I got it free, but I like new cute ones too. I keep donating the older ones to the school for their stuff.

One final bad thing I did. I have been lusting over the Christmas decorations in the stores when I'm out shopping! When I'm with the kids we ignore the holiday isles, but when I'm by myself I scope them all out!

I do have one thing going for me though, I have yet to turn on Christmas music! But when that turkey is devoured in 2 days, the music is coming on!! Oh and there are no Christmas decorations up, no ornaments either.

So what do you think...coal this year for me?? For some strange reason I think I might still be okay :)

1st place Salem!

So Today was cyclocross day in Bettendorf. I have been debating taking Salem. Keith is on call and could not go, but Salem was 2nd in the series and this is the 4th and final race of that series, so he was going to get a medal. It wasn't that I couldn't handle taking him, it was more I didn't want to hold up the other racers with Salem being the last one on the course. This course is always pretty tough, lots of ups and downs, long grassy stretches too which is not his forte. You know he's slow...he's a 1st year beginner though and only 10, so quite understandable. It's just me trying to be nice and polite. On the other hand we have seen nothing but good things coming from everyone while Salem races. Lots of people ask him name to cheer him on personally, rather then yelling "go junior". They support him and tell him what a great job he does, before during and after the races. So in the end I decided to forgo sleeping in and take him.

It was a chilly day, but sunny. Salem's race started at 11am and we got there in time to register and have him warm up a bit. There is a HUGE killer run up on this course, but I told him to just ride the beginning section a few times to get the legs going. We had some "special" jelly beans to energize him that he wanted to try. I don't think they helped him during the race, but he liked them and they didn't come back up, so that's good!

Salem raced with the beginners and juniors and there was only 6 total! Small field! Ends up the course was changed from last year and the back section was shortened, good thing! The front was longer though, but not too bad. Salem was able to stay with the group until the first set of barriers and then he was dropped. Those guys with longer legs have it easy over him! There is a small jump in the back section that Salem tried jumping every time. He got a little air, if he would have gone faster he would have gotten higher. He was excited thought he got some air.

The thing with Salem, if he has people cheering him on...or yelling...no it's constructive criticism...in my case, he goes faster. But when he gets out in the sections with noone he zones out and slows down to nothing! I kept telling him he needs to motivate himself to keep going. Whether that means talking to himself, or singing a up beat song, something to keep his pace up and keep turning the pedals over faster!

Salem was lapped by the whole field, not too surprising, but he was only lapped once! He finished 6th over all and 1st in Juniors. Secret...there was only 1 junior there today! The other junior chose to race in the higher up class, which is okay cause he would have killed everyone in the beginner group!

After the race we went to go get some lunch. The race had a raffle and prizes which were to be awarded after the final race at 1:30. We first tried Pizza Hut which was a delivery only, then Dominos which was inside a scary gas station, so we passed on those two and we went to Happy Joe's pizza. Never been to one, but it was yummy pizza! Much better then some greasy burger! It was nice to sit down and relax and eat. After lunch we headed back to the race to see the Elite guys off. The raffle was up and Salem won a t-shirt! And to his surprise they had one in his size a youth large. Okay I think it was kind of rigged that way, but that's okay, Salem was happy! Cool Surly t-shirt.

They were taking the course down and Kaden wanted to help, so we walked around taking all the caution tape off the stakes while we were waiting for the awards. Kaden got the best award! After all was taken down Kaden was saying how he wanted some of the tape for home, so I told him to go ask the guy if Kaden could take some home. He was a bit shy, but got Salem to walk with him to find the guy. I knew they threw away all the tape so I figured it wouldn't be a problem to take some. In the end out trunk was FULL of caution tape! I'm guessing we have over 5000 feet of the stuff! Kaden was SO ecstatic!! I made sure to tell the guy how happy he made my child, lol. And then later on I was talking with another guy who puts on races and I was saying how Kaden makes cyclocross course in our yard and the guy said he should have Kaden make a kids course next year for them! We'll see if that happens, but once Kaden uses the tape in our yard I'll take pics and send it to their team to show him.

Awards were nice, lots of money being handed out. They forgot to do the medals and trophies (only Salem got them so not on everyone's mind). But Salem went up afterwards and asked for his, the guy was sorry he forgot to hand them out, but glad Salem had come to the races and hoped he had fun. Salem got a 1st place trophy for today's race and a medal for his 2nd place in the series!

Salem has one more race this year, Jingle Cross next weekend. Tough course, tough competition! I expect to see quite a few juniors there, all older than Salem with a few more years experience. But we tell Salem if he keeps it up, he'll be like them in no time.

We stopped at Wendy's on the way home to get a frosty, yummy!! And Kaden has to wait until tomorrow to use his caution tape, since it was dark when we got home. I think everyone is going to crash hard tonight, some deep sleep! Fun day!!!

Happy Birthday Keith!!

Keith turned 31 today!! Today bad it was a pretty bad day. He is on call for work and was called out 3 times throught last night, which meant no sleep! Today he was home at 5pm, but was notified he was probably going to get called back out. Some guy was cutting down an big ole pine tree and it fell the wrong way, took out 3 poles and all the wires! So we quickly did presents and dinner. Keith was able to play with one of his presents, and then Keith he had to go out. Finally got home just after 9pm and we were able to have cake! Of course it was a Carvel cake, yummy!! Keith is home now and able to play with the rest of his toys before crashing for the night hoping to get a couple hours of sleep!

Keith got a Nerf rapid fire 20 shot gun...watch out kids!! A PSP with 2 games, a bag of double stuffed Oreos and Jeff Dunhams Christmas dvd. Lots of fun things to play with!

Wednesday recap

Sunday brought us waking up nice and early so Keith and Salem could go down to the Jingle Cross course and ride it a bit with some of the other HBA guys. We wanted to make sure Salem was able to atleast walk up Mt. Krumpit for the juniors race. Keith and the other guys wanted to get a feel for the course and get some practice in. We brought Kaden's bike along too so he could ride a bit. The course wasn't too dry, lots of mud spots and the boys found them all! That's fine they wash up pretty well.

It was a pretty cold day, so I was bundled up and the kids were too, but since they were riding they got hot quickly with their winter jackets on. So I let them take them off and ride with their long sleeves on. Just ride fast I said! The sun was shinning so that helped! They all rode for about 1.5 hours.

Came back home and decided it was time to take care of the leaves. Got 18 bags this year! Quite the small amount though! Normally it's well over 20! Guess the wind was in our favor some days blowing it NOT in our yard! The kids played on their bikes while Keith and I raked. Okay Keith did the raking, I cut the strawberry plants down and the other plants down for the winter. I figure I either killed the strawberries or made them better, well see next year!

It did warm up in the afternoon so it made being outside all day not so bad.

Monday was Cub Scout day, pack night. Nothing too exciting. Salem earned another Webelos activity badge. He now has enough to make the Arrow of Light!! But he's not done, he's still working on badges. he has until February to do as many as he can. Kaden's doing well with his stuff, cruising right along...when I remind him to work on it that is. He'll have his badge by Blue & Gold for sure.

Salem has his conferences last night. Keith made it just in time!! Teacher said Salem is doing well in class, he's a nice bright young boy...when he sits still and pays attention that is, lol. He's got a bad grade going on in Reading right now and she says it's because he rushed through the things and doesn't really read the directions and such. Yup, sounds like Salem. But he's got time to bring the grade up and I'm sure he will!!

Kaden has his next Tuesday, so we'll see how he is doing. We got his report card and for the most part he is okay. Have to work on subtraction...which he hates! He is doing great in spelling, but doesn't use the correct spelling in his daily work, doh! Mostly because he too rushes to get his work done.

Keith started on call today. So far so good...knock on wood! It would be nice to get a bit of overtime on the next check. But it's either he gets a TON of it, like TOO much, or he gets only a couple hours. There is no happy medium. No bike races 2 weekends in a row, he's going stir crazy! He did get an early Christmas present last week. A friend of his was selling his power meter thing, so he's got that all set up on his road bike so when he rides the rollers inside he gets all the data that he can see on the computer later. It's a pretty cool toy!

His most recent project is the Christmas tree. We bought a pre-lit white one last year on clearance and decided to change all the bulbs to colored ones. Not knowing what fools and crazy people we must be! Broke out the tree Sunday and Keith finished replacing all the bulbs today. It looks really nice and pretty! Almost too pretty to put ornaments on! I helped Keith for a short time, and then let him do the great job he was doing. The tree is not all fluffed out yet, will have to do that tomorrow as he just finished the lights tonight. Kaden helped a bit one night and Salem did too. They will be excited to wake up tomorrow to see it all done!

I'm doing fine. Got my tooth fixed last week, not sure if I mentioned that. Now I have to hope and pray the temp filling lasts until the new year so I can get it under insurance. I've paid enough out of pocket so far! Had to break out the maternity clothes, ugh. I can still fit into some bigger clothes, but the maternity feels nicer. I did find I have to do some shopping. I've got my seasons mixed up here. My medium clothes from last time are all summer ones and my large are all winter. I need that reversed, shucks! But finding maternity clothes around here is impossible! Such a poor selection! I am heading back to NY December 8th to have an amnio done. The parents are requesting one, and I agreed. We're not expecting to find anything, but for a peace of mind I guess. They have a good friend who is the best of the best I guess out there that will be doing it, so that makes it a bit nicer. I'll be back just in time to go to Cross Nationals. Will have to take it easy, but should be fine!

Boys have been working on their Christmas lists. Salem has a big long list. Kaden's not so much! Although Kaden said he looked through all the magazines we got, now it's time to go window shopping at the store to make the rest of his list. They don't have school Friday, so maybe we'll go then. Have to pick up a b-day present for Keith too.

We win!!

What a game!! What a long day! Arrived at the train station at 9:30ish ready to go! Bundled ourselves all up, had our blanket and sleeping bags, purse with some snacks and camera and hand warmers! The train is a double decker, but the top was all full so we sat in the bottom section. Nice 8 minutes ride to the stadium. It drops you off just across the road, except our seats were on the other side of the stadium. Got there a little early as the game didn't start until 11am and it was before 10am! The place was pretty empty as expected. It was cold, no one wanted to be out in the wind before necessary. The section we were in went up to row 52 and ours was 51! It did give us a chance to settle in, get our blankets all set and such. The football players were warming up on the field so the kids had something to keep them occupied. Finally we all got hungry so Keith and Kaden went to grab some grub, hoping it stayed warm enough until it got in our tummies! Boys had a hot dog each and I had nachos, always great game foods!

Game time! Had some exciting plays and some questionable calls, but in the end we came out the winner!!! Hawks 22 to Purdue's 17. GO Hawks!! Kaden enjoyed watching the marching band at the half. Come 4th quarter the boys were really getting in to the game cheering the players on. Before that, they were watching, but not all excited and yelling.

We stayed pretty warm considering how cold it was and that it snowed on and off during the game. The boys snuggled in their sleeping bags and had hand warmers and hats and scarfs and such. We all sat on the blanket I brought. It was supposed to cover me, but it was better used to sit on, as the seats are metal benches, brr!!

After the game we headed back to the train, had to wait about 15 minutes for it to come back. And we even got to sit on the top row! Boys were happy about that. Got back to the car and needed some lunch. It was now after 2:30. We needed our warm car and food! What luck, Sonic was just down the road...away from all the traffic! Oh that's good food!! By the time we got done, the traffic was dwindling. We stopped at the mall to wander and then it was time to go home. Only had to deal with mall traffic then, not too bad.

It was fun to go to a real football game. Keith and I have only been to high school games before and the kids have never been to even that. Keith said he wasn't up for another time, found hockey more exciting. Kaden wants to go when it's warmer and Salem had fun and will go whenever/wherever.

HAWKEYE'S!!!

We're going to a Hawkeye football game tomorrow!!! YEAH, cheer, freeze!! Got a deal on half priced tickets so Keith and I agreed since there was no bike race and nothing else TOO important to be done, that we should take advantage of it and go. The kids have been bugging for years to go to a game, but at $50+ a ticket, it was way out of our budget! Not like this trip isn't going to cost us an arm and leg, but I think we might be able to salvage some body parts due to the savings on the tickets!

It's the last home game of the season and we are playing Purdue. We're not big football fans here, but try to catch our beloved Hawks on TV when we can...atleast find the final score. Kaden's teacher this year is a big fan, so I emailed him to get some hints or tips on what we need to know since we're newbies. He called me this afternoon and filled me in a bit.

We've got some decent seats, not the best, but Kaden's teacher had season tickets in the section right next to us a couple years ago and he said it was a good spot to see all the action. Parking shouldn't be too big of a problem, we'll be talking the train! Kaden will love that! It's a double decker train used just for the football games to transport people from out by the mall into the stadium. It's not free, but it'll be the same price as parking close to the stadium and we won't have to deal with traffic...and finding parking.

Only problem I see is the weather! Temps are supposed to be in the low 20's with snow showers! We're gonna dress to stay WARM! Hand heaters, blankets, long underwear and neck warmers!

GO HAWKS!!!

Busy Thursday...Kaden

Play day!! It finally has arrived!!! I wonder if the kids will calm down now since the play is out of their system?? The kids have worked so hard at school to get their parts and songs and moves down pat! I'm always amazed at how well the plays turn out! The music teacher is awesome!!

Kaden was the distinguished judge, so he was dressed up fancy. There was 2 other judges, but not as "fancy as him" He was also the only one with an accent. They preformed the play for all the kids at school today so they had to bring their costumes. Kaden wanted to wear his, that was fine, I just told him not to get ketchup on it. It came home clean!

6:30 we arrived at the high school to find the parking lot full of cars and the auditorium already getting full of people. We had discussed with Kaden where he would be sitting and standing so we had an idea where we wanted to sit. Thankfully we found some just about perfect seats! Only problem was Kaden was standing on the left side of the stage, but his seat for the judges speaking parts were on the right side. Poor kid had to run across the stage a few times when his speaking parts were done and the singing was to begin. He did great though with that.

Kaden did an awesome job with his parts, pretty clear, only slaughtered 1 word and it's a tough one he had trouble with. Lots of great dancing, fun to watch him and the other kids! Keith took a video while I snapped pics. We'll try and get the video up online in the next couple days.

Busy Thursday...Salem

Salem had his field trip. He wanted me to come along, yeah! Of course I sign up, next year I'm sure I'll be a nobody to him in school, he won't want mom around! We headed down to Iowa City and the Iowa campus. Stopped by the Old Capital and got a tour, really neat in there! They have a freestanding 3 story staircase! Way freaky to climb up and down! We got to see the bell that was burned when the dome caught fire. Got to see the Senate and House of Reps rooms and learn some history of the place. Although the kids did seem kind of bored.

We also headed to the Hall of Mammals. The kids all did projects on an animal so they had to find their animal in here. His teacher forgot the camera and I had mine, so I took pics of all the kids by their animal.





We saw the Hall of Birds (or some other name) and wow, there are lots of birds! In each place we visited the kids had printed sheets of things to find and search for, so they weren't just wandering and causing trouble.
We also went to a...I can't recall the halls name, but it was about long long long ago! We saw Indians and how they lived, we saw how Iowa was part of the ocean at one time and the super weird fish that lived here. Coralville was named that way because it was a big bead of coral way back when. Lots of artifacts to check out. The kids also got to touch and hold REAL bones from a sloth. If you've seen Ice Age, you know the sloth in there is quite small. In real life it is HUGE! I'm talking elephant size almost! The toe knuckle bone is bigger than my fist! Surprised me there!! The sloth was dressed up for the election still.

Day was pretty nice and we got to eat lunch sitting on the steps of the one hall and then back to more museum looking. The kids seemed generally interested in looking at all the animals and birds and such. And they behaved very well. Salem even wants to go back so Kaden can see and so he can look more in dept at some things. We can do that!!

Oh another cool thing, the teacher gave the kids an "I Spy" sheet to do on the bus ride. She's so smart!! Kept the kids busy looking for semis' cows, road kill, restaurants and such. Very good list!

Tuesday catch up...Sunday's bike race

I never seem to catch some downtime after a race weekend. Sunday was race day!!! MAN it was COLD!!!!!!!!! Temps were in the high teens with the wind chill! Yes COLD!! Salem raced first and Kaden and I sat in the car while Keith and Salem warmed up...warmed up meaning riding the course, you never got warm Sunday! Once it was race time, Kaden was too cold so he stayed in the car (phooey on him) while Keith and I went out to cheer Salem on! We weren't the only fools though, lots of other spectators...we'll not lots, but a few. This one big group of local riders and parents were big on cheering on Salem, he loved it! The poor kid though everytime I saw him he was saying how cold his hands were! Yeah, I bet they were! He had long fingered gloves, but not really insulated, so they had to be cold! He didn't give up though and finished! I got to him at the finish and had him put his jacket on. The poor kid was crying because of how cold his hands were!! I gave him my gloves and took him to the car to try and warm them up. I felt so bad for him, he obviously was in a lot of pain with his fingers. About 20 minutes later it was time for Keith's race and he was starting to be able to feel his hands again!! Salem finished 12th out of 12. 2nd in the juniors over all and 1st in the 10-14 group. The other junior was the 18 year old in his last year as a junior.

For Keith's race Kaden and I got out to watch. Kaden was feed zone boy and I was camera crew. Kaden lasted a couple laps and then he was done and sent back to the car. So that left me trying to camera and feed zone. Not too hard, but I wanted to get a couple certain shots and it wasn't possible when I was doing both. So I called Kaden to come back out for a couple laps to help me. And he did, but afterwards ran right back to the car! Keith finished 13th out of 27, not too bad! We had another HBA member out there too, Chris finished 7th.

After Keith's race was Kaden's kids race. Ugh, more time for Keith and I in the cold! Kaden wore Salem's riding gloves and instantly was freezing. There was 4 kids in the kids race, 2 9 year olds and a 6 year old along with Kaden. Kaden finished 3rd. They had people helping them over the barriers and it was a shortened course. Kaden was still very happy to ride it!

It would have been a much nicer day had it been a tad bit warmer, but oh well, it's cross season!

And a video too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCj43tyC-fk

Here's a little video Keith made of Salem's race last weekend. Kinda fun to watch!

Salem pics from State Championship

Here are some pictures from Salem's race last Saturday. You'll see the results of giving Kaden the camera...never again!!! I let him use mine since his was in the car and he loved how it could take a slideshow. So hey, figure you might as well enjoy it too! I did cut it off before the end, he took a ton more, but I won't make you suffer through those.

Iowa State Cross Champinships - Salem

Heat, thunderstorm and snow all in one week!

So we haven't had the snow yet, but it's coming...tonight!! Up until today we've been in the 70's! Good thing I'm slow on packing the boys clothes away as Kaden wanted to wear shorts this week. Sure, it's been in the 60's in the morning and 70's in the afternoon! Today it's down in the 50's :( And over night we had a thunderstorm! Tornadoes were in the neighboring states, missed us though! Oh and wind, lots and lots of wind!! Not enough to blow all the leaves out of yard though, darn. Kaden and I were out there yesterday afterschool raking leaves into piles so he could make a course out of them. It was getting dark and almost time for him to come in, but then Keith put Salem's bike light on Kaden's so he could stay out a bit longer. He was ecstatic! I raked a huge pile which he was excited and wanted to ride his bike through it. I said why not jump in it. Oh yeah and he went flying! Pile buried him up! Salem missed out, he was inside with daddy riding on the trainers. (plenty other times for a leaf pile) Gotta get his legs going, another race this Sunday. And Kaden is super happy, there is a kids race!!!

What else has been going on? Kaden is ready for his school play on the 13th. He's got his lines memorized and you can almost understand him when he speaks. He has to speak with an accent as he is the "distinguished" judge, but he has a couple harder words (for him) so we've been working on kinda of slowing down a bit and saying the words clear. Although all the kids are kinda of hard to understand at the mic, so Kaden won't be out of place.


Salem is working hard on his clarinet learning music. They have a concert December 4th! I need some earplugs though as he is learning Christmas music. Oh, no Christmas music until after Thanksgiving...but I'll let Salem slide through as it's for a good cause! His class is studying Indians from the different regions of the US. They also studied animals, Salem chose the flying squirrel. The kids had to do a report on their animal and make a life like drawing of them. In their classroom, the back wall has been transformed into a forest and all the kids animals are hung up in their appropriate spots. It's really cool and they did a great job! They are going on a field trip next week down to Iowa City to visit a few museums to learn more. I get to go as well!!


Hey gas is down to $1.97 for the crapanol stuff. $2.09 for my car, but wow, it's gone down like a buck in a month!! Why isn't everything else going back down then??? You know they blamed high airline prices and food costs on fuel, yet all that is still super high! Milk did go down though!! I can get a gallon for under $3 now!!


I've got my first OB appointment this afternoon. Kaden has been asking me if my belly is baby fat or food fat, lol. He loves when I get a big ole belly and is waiting for then! I've got a little one going...okay maybe not so little, but not huge either!

Keith...he's been riding and working. Hard to do with it getting dark at 5:15, but him and another guy meet up at the local park at 5pm to do a couple laps and then ride with their lights for a couple more. They are both dreading having to do the inside riding thing for the winter!

Alright, that's it for now, Keith is coming home for lunch...gotta go find lunch!

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Another beyond gorgeous day today! Loving this weather! Too bad I know it will end soon. But we'll try to enjoy it as much as we can while it's here!

Today Keith went golfing with a couple buddies from work. They had free passes from the golfing tournament that was thunder stormed out over the summer. They finally got together today to go. He did pretty well, shot a 93, not sure what par was. But it's basically his 1st time for the year (outside of the few holes they shot earlier in the rain), so not too bad. All our golf clubs gathered dust this year...so sad!!

Kids were raring to go early this morning. They failed to remember to SLEEP IN! They had to do some chores before I let them loose in the yard. And what normally would take them hours took them only a short time. It's amazing how fast they can do things when they want something else out of it! So they got it all done and outside they went! Kaden went to work on a bike course with the leaves and flags. Salem rode around until it was done. That kept them busy all day...except for when I told Kaden he needed to stop using the wood that had nails in it for log crossings. I guess most of the wood we have has nails. But it was either him stop using the wood, or him possibly getting nails in the tire which would mean no bike for a long time cause we won't fix it! He got all angry, but finally calmed down and carried on with their riding.

Keith and I set out to clean the garage out today. What a disaster that was! Took a trunk full to goodwill and the trunk is full of stuff to take to recycling on Tuesday when it opens. Lots of organization happening and general pick up from just tossing stuff in there. But my car now "fits" in the garage!!! It's a tight squeeze with all the bikes on the sides, but it's better than having to scrape the windows every morning!!! Let's see how long it can stay nice and clean! The basement is another project we have to tackle!! Along with finding clothes for the boys. Haven't gone through their winter clothes yet. Was going to do that this weekend but then it was so nice, we had to take advantage of it. I'd rather clean the garage in nice weather then below zero stuff!!

Pooped us all out this weekend!!!

Busy Busy Saturday!

Just a quick update on today. Salem and Keith had bike races over in Altoona. Salem raced withe single speed guys...what single speed...they FLY!!! Salem only got lapped 2x and that is pretty good considering the guy who lapped him is a Cat 1 and normally laps his whole field except for the top 3-4 guys. Doesn't help the course was huge! This was the Cyclocross State Championships so medals were on the line for the top 3 juniors. Good thing only 3 juniors turned out to race!! Salem finished 3rd place in Juniors, but because the 2nd place kid does not have an annual license Salem got the 2nd place medal! He got the 3rd place prize though, and it was $25 gift certificate to Scheels (a local bike store). Pretty sweet considering the junior racers were free today!!

Keith didn't get lapped and out of a field of 34 Keith finished 15th! No medal or prizes, but a great race for him!! Especially since he has been fighting a sinus/cold infection all week long!

After the race we had to race home and go to the Scout night at the RoughRiders (local hockey) game. Got there just in time! Awesome awesome game!!! Lots of action and goals!! We won 6-2! We knew it had to be a good game when we scored a goal within the 1st minute. And then another time we scored on a power play and the announcer didn't get to finish saying who scored the goal when we scored again!! We had 6 scouts show up, so not too bad. There is never a ton of interest for the hockey games, but it is a blast! I'm thinking of getting either season tickets for us or just a few game tickets for us for Christmas. The kids had a blast and I think they'd enjoy going often! Salem also got to use his scout knowledge tonight. For one of his pins he had to learn the signs for a sport, he chose hockey and got to tell us the calls tonight. Kids are doing the chicken dance in the picture.

Game ended just after 9pm and home we went again finally for the night. We let the kids stay up and watch the videos we took of the race today and then off to bed. I figured they'd be pooped (I know Keith and I are) but they are still up yapping and messing around. Well they better sleep in tomorrow then!!!

I'll work on more pictures and such maybe tomorrow, not sure, it's supposed to be really nice here...think 70's, so we'll probably be spending most of the day outside. Kaden loves making those bike courses in our yard!