It has been awhile since I've written on my blog. My mom and two nephews came down to visit over spring break and the week after. We had such a great time and I plan on posting pictures tomorrow. Today was a good day. Went to church and then the house was a disaster and I ended up cleaning. I feel like I didn't give my kids the quality time they needed. I know being a mom requires a lot of patience but I think my kids are very patient with me as well. They were so helpful today and did everything they were asked to without wining (miracle!). Anyway, I'm just blabbing. Travis did a hard bike race today and took 7th place-he's such a talented rider.

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking

One thing I love about my mom is that she is always carrying quotes or uplifting articles with her or they are posted around her house. On Tuesday she decided to take a drive and come visit us and of course she brought with her this wonderful message (it doesn't have the authors name).

When You Thought I Wasn't Looking

(A message every adult should read because children are watching you and doing as you do, not as you say.)

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator, and I immediately wanted to paint another one.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make my favorite cake for me, and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I heard you say a prayer, and I knew that there is a God I could always talk to, and I learned to trust in Him.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick, and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it, and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel good, and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes, and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but it's all right to cry.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared, and I wanted to be everything that I could be.

When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and wanted to say, "Thanks for all the things I saw when you thought I wasn't looking."

(Each of us-parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, friend-influences the life of a child.)

Live Simply, Love Generously, Care Deeply and Speak Kindly!!!

Tucson Bicycle Classic

Mar. 12-14

Stage 1-Time Trial-"What?"

Trav was coaching our game face. We need some work!

Julie and Melissa warming up for TT.

Joe and Travis warming up for TT

Travis in action at the TT. Do you think his helmet needs to be longer?

He did 3 miles in 8 min. 19 sec. and placed 9th in his category.

Stage 2-Road Race 40 miles for me (Cat. 4). Trav rode 80 miles (cat. 2)

I would have to say this race was sketchy and made me very nervous

to move on to stage 3 but fortunately both me and Trav finished safely.

The added bonus to this race is the awesome group of people that were with us.

We had so much fun with everyone who did the race. Lunch at Ferkins or

or something like that. Someone ordered a ferkin cheeseburger.

Stage 3-Circuit Race-mine was 28 miles, Trav's was 45 miles. This was actually

fun and less scary. In the end I took 13th overall and Trav took 8th overall. This race

was quite the experience. Very humbling. My husband is a very talented rider. I

think I have to work at it a little more. It was not a relaxing weekend but it was so

fun to take a weekend and do something the me and my husband used to do before

we had kids. I love hanging out with him plus we got to eat butterfinger blizzards on

the way home-they were delicious!!!! (getting butterfinger blizzards was something

we did all the time when we lived in Jackson, WY).

Here is my sweet husband right before he started his last race!!! Love you, I had

a great weekend!!!

Playing Catch Up

Travis posing his relaxed smile! What do ya think??????

On Wed. March 3rd Maci lost her 3rd tooth-the Front tooth! Her teacher at dance pulled it out

because it was just hanging and then they had a tooth dance celebration and she came home with a huge heart lollipop! Funny how this pic resembles the one above!!

On Saturday, March 5th, Max had his last game for the season. They played in the rain! Their team played well and ended up taking 2nd place in the tournament! Good Job boys!!!

Max in ACTION!!!

Sunday March 7th

Trav says hail, I say SNOW!!! This is the closest Mesa gets to snow so once again

I SAY SNOW!!!

Crazy Day

Today seemed like a very crazy busy day. It started with bike rides-Trav did 80 miles and I managed 50. Then Max had a soccer tournament starting at 11:30a in Phoenix and then on the other side of town (Chandler) Maci had a birthday party and then Max had another game at 4:45p. His team won both of their games-YEAH! Good Job United. During the birthday party I was able to go to a furniture store called The DUMP-I would have to say they had great stuff and unique as well. It all just seemed like a lot of driving. So here I sit and BREATHE!!!! I wonder if I should worry when my almost 3 year old requests listening to Lady Gaga "Bad Romance" every time we get in the car! He actually says, "I wanna listen to Lady Gaga!" Cute??????????? I am off to relax and eat a yummy cookie that Katie made-thank you!!!

Way to Early

This is what you look like when you wake up at 3am and can't go back to sleep! Its going to be a long day!!!

Yesterday I was backing out of my driveway and forgot that Travis's car was parked to the side of the driveway but not far enough over so......CRASH!!!! I ran into his car-lovely. This wouldn't be the first time I've done this!

Warning: Do not ever park behind Melissa!

The Good, the Bad and then there's the RAGNAR!!!

Van 1- Brittny, Brenda, Melissa, Heidi, Kelly, and Brook

It took me long enough but here is our crazy adventure of a race. To start off we ran a relay race that was 202 miles starting in Prescott, AZ and ended in Mesa, AZ. We had a team of 12 women called "Haulin' Asphalt". You have two vans with 6 runners in each and we all run 3 different times-sounds fun, right? On the night before the race (Thursday) Brittny's sister in law who flew in from Texas got the flu so we called our wonderful backup, Brenda, at 9:30p and she said she would do it-SUCKA! So we left Friday morning at 6:30a to start our race at 9:30a. All was well until our 4th runner Heidi is 2 miles into her run and we see her hobbling. She hurt her knee and she is out-sad!

The race goes on quite smoothly until we get a call at 3am that there was an accident and an 18 year old boy was hit by a car. My heart and prayers go out to this family because 2 days ago he passed away. Many people dropped out at this time and most of us thought the race would be cancelled but it wasn't and in fact their highschool team (Brophy) actually finished the race, I was very impressed!

This makes it so van 2 has to skip 3 legs of the race and we have to hurry to the last big exchange to start running again. Tired? Oh YES! At this point poor Brittny has food poisoning and is very sick so we have to leave her in Wickenburg at our hotel-thank goodness we had a hotel! Van 1 is now down to 4 runners! We split the legs of the race up so those who did not get to do their second run were able to run some of ours since we were lacking runners at the time. At this point we had one more runner injure her knee in van 2. Needless to say, we finished the race and had a great time!!!

So why would anyone do a race like this? Because the craziness, the adventure and all of the bonding time that a team of runners experience leaves you wanting more and more!!! I should know, this was my 4th and craziest one of all and I walked away uplifted and invigorated!

Side note: Since I was not super great at getting my camera out I don't have any pics of the whole team so when I get some I will definitely post because I certainly don't want to leave them out of this!

Running in style! Photo by Brenda