Eye of the Storm

The day started out pretty normal - but took a quick turn about 9 am this morning. Jeremy was packing up to head to the tipi, Isabella was angry with me because I wouldn't let her wear her dirty clothes from yesterday. I got them out the door when I got a customer call.

At one point I was instant messaging with 3 different people while on a conference call and encouraging Samantha to get dressed and ready for her physical therapy appointment.

I usually don't stress if I have to run out to an appointment during the work day because I have email on my phone. However, I am getting the royal run around from work when it comes to getting a replacement for my phone since I dropped it.

So I had to leave in the middle of my customer escalation. I ran Sam to PT then headed over to Panera Bread because they have free wireless. I checked my email there and then back to pick up Samantha from PT. Then I had to run to pickup Isabella before running to pick up Daniel. See Daniel had an appointment to retake his hearing test - Isabella had to come with since we only pay for school until 4:30 pm.

Well we made it to Daniel's test (which he passed with flying colors - no more excuses that he didn't hear me) only 2 minutes late.

After I had to hit the grocery store - we went to one that had the little 'shoppers in training' shopping carts. Daniel was pushing the regular sized one and Isabella had the smaller one. I only needed a few items - but I am sure you can picture Isabella - grabbing items she wants off the shelves - the funny thing is Daniel and Samantha were doing the same thing - they can just debate better.

We took over the store - there was one wide eyed gentleman - you could tell he didn't have kids - he just looked amazed as I repeatedly asked the kids to stop shopping and move towards the checkout.

There was one point on the drive home where all 3 kids had their bare feet in each other face - singing 'smell my feet' at the top of their lungs - I am talking about my 16 and 14 year old as well. I feel like I have been nagging the kids a lot lately so I decided since they were having fun and laughing I would just let the extra noise slide.

Now I have 2 out of the 3 in bed and I am looking around my house. The dogs were wrestling and dumped over things - the kitchen is a mess from dinner - Isabella was looking for her princess dolls and proceeded to spread every color book, crayon and sticker book all over the floor.

Tomorrow will be another busy day - lots to do on my list - but Daniel will be out working and Samantha is making plans to go to a movie. So I may have some quiet. :)

Jeremy should be back from the tipi in time to go with me to Isabella's summer fair days tomorrow.

I think I have expended all the energy I can tonight. Time to recharge.

I will post pictures tomorrow - and call my mom!

Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day 3 - We did it!

Today's ride was about 33 miles. The little red dot was the finish line. You can see how the first 12 miles is all uphill. Jeremy was wonderful and stayed with me and we rode for a while - rested for a while - then rode some more. The only part that is wrong is the fact that on the map it shows it going downhill into the finish. It was NOT downhill - uphill all the way for last 6 miles - at this point I am not a big fan of uphill bike riding! :)

We did reach the Summit at mile 12 - I tell you the added 2000 feet really did make a difference. My legs felt great - my lungs however, were a different story.

It was very emotional for me today and I was trying to figure out why. I will apologize right at the beginning - I don't really like thinking super deep - but I think that over the past year there was so many things I wanted to do for Samantha. I wanted to take her cancer for her, I wanted to take away her pain - I wanted to help her walk and heal and not be sick. I couldn't do any of that, but I could ride my bike for 3 days for her. When we hit the summit (of the ride that I didn't think I could do) it was like I could finally do something for her. She is probably thinking - my mom is a freak - but that is it. Jeremy was very patient with me and was such a great support all day. It was a hard but really fun weekend.
Here we are crossing the finish line - Jeremy with his mom and me with Isabella. Almost immediately after I crossed the finish line - Daniel handed me Isabella. She was crying and I barely had time to grab my medal....

It was fantastic to see Samantha, Daniel and Isabella as we crossed the finish line.

We finished up rather quickly - got back to the condo to do a quick clean up and pack the van and then a drive back to Denver in the pouring rain.

Damian (Jeremy's brother) came up and made us a fabulous dinner while I drank some wine and Jeremy drank some beer and we relaxed. All in all it was a wonderful weekend.

Tomorrow is back to work for me but Jeremy is taking the whole week off. I will write more then - tonight I believe I am ready for bed.

Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day Two

Today was a wonderful day - the ride was absolutely beautiful. I did about 40 miles and Jeremy did about 51. Today was family ride day so they had many different options depending on how you felt. the shortest ride was about 35 and the longest was 98. I felt good about doing something in the middle. The above picture is the 4 of us at the Dillon Dam aid station. It was a beautiful day. We left this location and continued onto Blue River which was another 14 miles - mostly down hill. I rode this section with Jeremy and I was able to draft behind him at a pretty good pace. It was the most fun for me yet. Then while Jeremy continued to the top of the pass (another 12 miles up and down) I had to make my way back - but this time it was uphill. One of the riders hollered out "what goes down has to go up!" She was so right. I prefer to go up first and then finish with a nice downhill. But I made it. Jeremy and I hooked back up at the Dillon Dam aid station again.

There is Jeremy after we hooked up at the aid station. The other picture is of the lake we rode around.

While Jeremy and I were riding. The rest of the family hit the outlet mall over in Silverthorne. After the ride we showered (the first thing Sam said to me when I got home was - you stink!) and ate a bit. Then we headed to Vail to hang out with some friends. We wrapped up the day with a couple of pizzas and some TV.

It is about 8:30 pm now and I am ready for bed.

Tomorrows ride will be a long hard uphill for about 12 miles, finishing at 11,300 feet. Then about a 14 mile downhill - another 4 mile climb and a quick mile downhill. The total mileage for tomorrow will be about 34. There is also an option to do a 10 mile loop around Turquoise Lake - but I think we may have to pass so we have time to get back and clean up the condo and back to Denver by 5 or 6.

I am excited to cross the finish line wearing our Super Sam shirts.

Until tomorrow - Love to everyone!

Courage Classic Day One

The course ride was 58.10 miles and I personally did 50 miles. Daniel woke up bright and early with us (6 am) and dropped us up in Leadville. There were 2 mountain passes and "Battle Mountain". The picture to the left was our route. The bottom graph is the elevation. The first pass was not easy but not too hard. Battle Mountain was super steep(the pimple on the elevation map) but only a couple miles long. But the last pass did me in. We ate lunch in Vail and from there to the top of the pass was 18 or 19 miles. I decided to save the last 8 miles of the climb for next year. There have vans called 'sag wagons' that come pick up and shuttle you to the next aid station. I was pretty disappointed that I couldn't carry on but it would have taken me too long. I really wanted to do all the ride for Samantha - but my fitness level just wasn't there. The good news is that Jeremy, AJ and Gina all did the full ride for her.

Tomorrows ride is a relatively easy one - there is a bike path from Copper Mountain Ski resort all the way to Breckenridge (these are Colorado Ski towns). It will be a beautiful ride thru the trees. The mountain wildflowers are beautiful. I need to find my camera - I forgot it today. It is somewhere in the condo we are staying in but we have 7 people staying in a 2 bedroom place. So things are everywhere. :)

I am ready to hit the sack - so I will sign off for tonight. As you can see - Jeremy is already out. :)
Love to everyone!

OMG - I can't believe I got to see the Jonas Brothers

I know it has been a while but time just slips away. I usually like to add entries at the end of the day - but the evenings have been busy. The kids got back from camp Saturday afternoon. We had an hour together before we left to go to the Jonas Brothers concert. Samantha, 2 friends and Isabella piled into the van and we hit the road. Daniel didn't get to see Tom Petty - he got home from camp a bit too late and he was tired anyway. Apparently both kids stayed up all night their last night at camp. Both of them had loads of fun!

Anyway - back to the concert... there were so many kids and people and it was really warm. Fiddlers Green was not the best venue - long lines everywhere and a bit disorganized - but the girls found a good spot and we settled in. Every time anyone walked on stage - every girl screamed - holy moly.

I know that I was the same way when I was younger - but it was still fun to sit back and watch all the hysteria. Isabella had a great time as well. I had to hold her on my shoulders for most of the concert so she could see - she was clapping and dancing - so cute. I wish I had some pictures - but I followed the rule that said no cameras and I had dropped my phone Saturday morning, so I couldn't use that either.

Sunday we spent the day relaxing and doing some house chores. The kids headed back to their dad's yesterday afternoon and will hang out there until Friday when we head to the mountains for the Courage Classic. I am a little nervous - I went for a ride on Sunday evening and my knee feels ok - a little weak - but ok. I just keep telling myself all I can do is my best. I am still going to try and keep it all fun. I really do enjoy riding my bike so I am going to focus on that.

Jeremy's mom and cousin Hannah come in on Thursday afternoon. We are all excited to see them and hang out in the mountains. I am especially glad for the vacation time. This weekend is the start of a couple of very busy months. After the Courage Classic - Jeremy has Ajay's bachelor party (I also have Gina's bachelor-ette party) then the next weekend is Jeremy's 100 mile off road Leadville ride. Then the kids and I (and maybe even Jeremy - we are working on that) will head for a weeks vacation in Cody and spend some time with my Mom and all our family there. I am looking forward to visiting with my Grandma and Grandpa - it has been a while and we miss them!

After Cody we then have Ajay and Gina's wedding - another fun weekend in the mountains. I am then hoping to go and visit my friend Dianna for a spa weekend the first week of Sept. Then the rest of September will attending some Pediatric Cancer awareness events on the very first awareness day ever -- Sept 13th! We also have at the Miracle Party on Sept 20th. We are close to having a web site with all the info - I will post it when it is ready.

Not to mention in all this that the kids start school in about 4 weeks. Daniel will be a Junior and Sam a Freshman (another Holy Moly). Samantha is starting physical therapy today. She wants to start school without her crutches - however, she really isn't too motivated to work on it at home. I feel myself nagging her and I don't like that at all. So I decided to let the PT guys do that... Her leg looks good and she is only using the crutches as a safety net - I am sure she can meet her goal with a bit of work.

We will have her next round of scans in Sept as well - can you believe that it will be 6 months? It seems like it was a lifetime ago but at the same time yesterday...

Well I need to get back to work. I have some pictures of Sam from camp that I am loading into another slide show. Hopefully I can add that later today.

Until then - Love to everyone!

Tag - Along

Isabella has started to ride the tag-a-long with Jeremy. She gets so excited to put on her helmet and ride. You would think that as much as we like to ride bikes in our home that she would be a natural. Izi got a bike for her first birthday, but she doesn't like to ride it. Even now that she tried the tag-a-long and loves it - she is determined not to ride her bike until she is 4.

Tonight was really warm and so we decided to hit the park. I don't know if you can tell from the pictures above (I tried to get close) but she is wearing her signature skirt with her princess flip flops. I just think it is so funny that she does everything in her skirt.

Well the big kids got off to camp just fine. Samantha was a bit subdued, but she got to see Savannah (her companion from Wapiyapi) and Daniel found his camp friends as well. It is a beautiful camp North West of where we live - about an hour and a half drive.

They will be coming home on Saturday morning - which is super busy already. Chris will be picking the kids up because Isabella has a birthday party. Saturday - Jeremy will be doing his 50 mile mountain bike race as well. Then we have the big Jonas Brothers concert. So far I have an extra ticket - one of Samantha's friends can't make it. I suppose if I can't find someone to buy it - Isabella will be going. Poor Daniel - he has his hopes on going to Tom Petty - but tickets are $100 a piece and Chris has a scheduling conflict. I know Chris is still working on it - but it may be a long shot.

I got on my bike tonight and my knee feels good - I didn't push it - but I think with some Advil and ice - I will try a long ride this weekend.

Oh - something I have been trying to forget - but my laptop crashed again Saturday morning. It just won't power up (I am using Samantha's - which doesn't like me much either it seems). The IT guys think it is a bad system board. I am hoping to get it replaced and be back in business tomorrow afternoon - keep your fingers crossed that the hard drive was not affected.

Ok - I am signing off for tonight - boring I know - but I just had to share Isabella's pictures. I don't know if I just forgot what Dan and Sam were like at this age - or if I was just too busy during that time of our life (we had just moved into a new home and I was getting that in order and starting to go back to work) - but I just love that Isabella has such a great imagination. She turns everything into a story and of course is constantly talking. I think the drama in her life is mellowing out - she seems to laugh a lot more and it is easier for me lately to get her smiling.

Well - I hope everyone is laughing and smiling more often too - Love you all!

Sister bonding

Well we have a bit of sister bonding going on tonight. All in all it is a good thing but poor Jeremy is having a small heart attack.

Samantha is super excited because The Jonas Brothers are coming to Denver and I gave the ok for us to go. Chris gets to take Daniel to Tom Petty and I get the Disney band (just wait until next time!) Anyway the concert is next weekend and like I mentioned - Daniel will be at Tom Petty with his dad, Jeremy has a 50 mile mountain bike ride so he won't be home - we were talking about finding a place for Isabella when one of Samantha's friends found out she couldn't go. Samantha opened her mouth and said "Donna is out and you, Isabella are in!" Well this started it all. All the way home from dinner (tonight was uncles dinner) Samantha and Isabella listen to Jonas Brother songs. Needless to say Isabella is now excited that she gets to go with Samantha (which by the way is still up in the air). It was kind of cute - Samantha was telling Izi who her favorite brother is and Isabella said "you are going to have to find a little Jonas brother for me!" The video above is Isabella singing part of a Jonas Brothers song...

This was something I wasn't prepared for when we decided to have Isabella. I thought that having 1 kid would be a breeze after having 2 little ones at the same time. I wasn't prepared to have 2 real teenagers and another teenager in a 3 year old body.

It is always nice when one of my teenagers gets in touch with their inner 3 year old. Here the girls are coloring together. :)

Thank goodness today is Friday. Jeremy spent his morning working at Isabella's school. He volunteered to do some wood working with the kids and was in turn asked to do pull together some carnival games. He has been using all his new tools to start making some hobby horses, a plinko game and a couple of those boards that have pictures painted on it with holes cut out so you can put your face in and have a picture taken. He had 3 classes of 3 to 5 year olds. They did some sanding, sawing and drilling this time. Next time they will do some painting and gluing. Then at the end of the summer program they will have a carnival. I will make sure to take lots of pictures so we can document all Jeremy's hard work.

Tomorrow morning I have to get up too early. I volunteered to shuttle the boys (Jeremy, Noah and Ajay) up to Kenoshaw pass. I drop them off up there and they will ride the Colorado Trail into Breckenridge. It is a long ride but wonderful training for Jeremy as he prepares for his mountain bike races.

I was hoping to get a really mellow bike ride in this weekend but I don't know if I can yet. I tried to ride to the pharmacy today and my knee was all wobbly and felt like it would fail any time I tried putting any pressure on it. I felt a bit discouraged since I don't have much time left before the CC. My emotions are hot and cold. My brain tells me just raising the money and doing what I can is all that is important, but I really want to do this for my daughter. I don't think she realizes my intention, but this ride will be hard work for me - nothing compared to what she has been thru - but all the same, I want to do this for her. At the end of the day - all I can do is my best. I will definitely ride across the finish line thinking how strong my daughter is and remembering how proud I am of her.

Well I am going to sign off for now. Have a great weekend. Love to everyone!

Comedy of Errors

UG - Aren't I purty? I finally gave in and decided I would put a picture up. I look so much better than I did. I have actually left the house a couple times - wearing my sun glasses of course.

Every time I see myself in the mirror - I am amazed that I crashed. What other 41 year old suburban mom do you see with 2 black eyes?

Want to hear something funny? Last night - in the middle of the night, I thought I heard Samantha calling my name. So I jumped out of bed out of a deep sleep and hustled out the room. The funny thing was our bedroom door was closed (this is not the normal - but the dogs were acting up) so I ended up literally running into the door full speed. Needless to say I woke up Jeremy as I stumbled down the stairs holding my nose to Samantha's room. She was not calling me - I got to her room and she was snuggled up sleeping soundly. I made it back upstairs and climbed back into bed. My nose was throbbing like crazy but as my heart rate slowed back down I couldn't help but laugh at myself. I couldn't believe I had hit my face again! Jeremy just shook his head and asked if I was ok - his life is never boring with me around.

Other than smashing my face multiple times - life is pretty normal. Samantha and Daniel came home Monday evening. Samantha spent yesterday relaxing and hanging out with her friend Donna. Daniel had another orthodontist appointment - turns out he needs another retainer ($$$). Tonight the kids are with their dad at a Journey concert. Anyone with one of SuperSam's healing tunes knows she loves Journey.

We are hoping to have an uncles dinner on Friday night and then the kids are off to Sky High Hope Camp on Sunday.

I am hoping to get a bike ride in this weekend - I sprained my knee when we crashed on Friday(totally take after my mom) and the doctor said to keep it rested and iced for the next few weeks - so the ride won't be too long.

Jeremy will get a nice long ride in on Saturday - he is riding part of the Colorado Trail, a 6 hour mountain bike ride. He is training for the Leadville 100 - his race is in August. His ankle is getting back to normal, I think he only has a couple more PT appointments. He is so good at doing his exercises.

I hope everyone is doing well! Love to everyone! Leave us some comments so we know how everyone else is doing... we love to hear from you all!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Hi all! We had a wonderful week - just plugging along mainly. Samantha came over for dinner on Tuesday - actually she ate at the mall - bit we played a game of Life and then watched a new television show she is interested in. It is called 'The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and it is about a 16 year old girl who finds out she is pregnant. We have only watched the first episode but I think it will be ok. Better than America's next top model or Gossip Girl - both which I think set unrealistic expectations on how life is supposed to be.

The new show was a bit shocking to Samantha in that sex is a big topic in most of the conversations - but the thing I like is that so far it is realistic. Another good aspect is that it opened up a nice conversation between Samantha and myself. Obviously after everything we have been thru this past year - if I found out Samantha was pregnant - it would not be the end of the world. Any new life would be welcomed - however, I did stress that it does not mean I am encouraging her to go out and get pregnant. I still expect her to make good decisions.

Take a look at Samantha fohawk -- I tried to capture it...

Thursday she came back over for dinner - we all went together to a friends house warming. We have friends that found a house in the Washington Park area of Denver. It is a fantastic neighborhood and houses there are priced pretty high. But it is something that is worth it to our friends - they are a few blocks off of the park and their home is beautiful - very European feeling. Fitting since one of them is from England and the other from Italy. They are super nice people and the food was fantastic!

Then for Friday - Jeremy, Isabella and I spent some time at the Boulder Reservoir - Isabella had a blast playing in the water and sand. It was a hot day and the water kept us comfortable.

Later that evening we packed up the tandem and Isabella's chariot and headed off to the city park to watch the fireworks. We met Daniel and Samantha there (they were hanging out with their dad). Fireworks were great. The night would have been perfect but on the way home Jeremy and I crashed on the bike. We were not going fast but hit the side of the sidewalk and the bike tipped. Most people think to protect their faces and end up with scrapes on their arms and legs - but no so luck for me. I broke my fall with my face. It looks a lot worse than it feels - but I hate that now everyone can tell that I don't know how to put out my arms when I fall. :)

Today - Jeremy spent time working on the supplies for Isabella's school carnival and I have been pretty lazy - doing some wash and watching TV. I was supposed to go for a bike ride on Sunday - but my right knee is a bit swollen from yesterday so I am passing. I am sure I will be able to do a short ride tomorrow night or Monday.

Both kids are coming home on Monday and will stay with me until Sunday when I take them to camp again. I love that they are going even though I miss them terribly when they are gone. Samantha is getting more and more independent and it is a wonderful time for brother and sister bonding. I can't believe we have 20 more days until the Courage Classic and then I am hoping to take a week vacation in August and go visit my Mom. I was thinking this week would work - but Sam has a concert she wants to go to and I am covering for a co-worker.


I am going to leave you with a couple really cool videos - one of Samantha walking and one of Isabella singing. Am I blessed or what!

Love to all!