Lance and the Tour of the Gila

I am so excited!! Woo hoo!! I've been on an emotional roller coaster ride, but according to the latest article I found on the Internet....

LANCE ARMSTRONG IS COMING TO SILVER CITY!!!!!!!!!!!!

When, do you wonder, did I become such a big Lance Armstrong fan? Well, since I learned of the possibility that someone that famous could be coming to our little town in the southwest corner of New Mexico.

The UCI (some racing board, look at me spouting racing terms now after 30 minutes of surfing the 'net) at first wasn't gonna let him race in the Tour of the Gila, but now they are.

Yippee! You can bet your bottom dollar where I'm gonna be this Saturday. Yep, downtown Silver City watching the criterium races. I will definitely be taking pictures.

For those of you who are totally lost as to what I'm talking about--

The Tour of the Gila is a bicycle stage race that is held here every spring. It's a 5 day stage race and they race all over the mountains here ending with the big race on Sunday called the Gila Monster. On Saturday they race around downtown. It is totally awesome to watch those racers come down the hill and around the corner. Simply amazng.

As an added bonus, these guys all have great legs too.

Ranch Kids

This weekend Aaron and I went to Albuquerque to help Mike & Debra get their house ready for Samantha. We left the girls at the ranch in Quemado and continued on our way. We got to Abq at 11:30pm Friday night. All day Saturday we worked on cleaning, organizing, and painting. We also had a some cuddle time with our precious niece, Samantha. That's right!!! She's home! She's doubled in size-- now weighing 5 pounds and 17 inches long. She's so, so, so precious.

At the request of the parents, they don't want to have pics of their child splattered across the Internet so, sorry, no pictures.

Tracey, Kylee, and Krysten had a blast at the ranch. All Kylee could talk about for days was getting to ride Freddie (the horse). They worked hard helping Papa and Grama on Saturday and got lots of riding time in. Right before we left, Tracey snuck off and returned riding bareback on Freddie. Of course Kylee wanted a ride. And surprisingly enough Krysten too. Usually she's too afraid of the horses to get near, much less touch them. So these are pictures of Krysten's first time on a horse.

Newborn kittens are sooooo CUTE!!! These are about 2 weeks old and the girls loved holding them. The mama cat wasn't so keen on the idea.

If one of these cute little white balls of fluff turn out to be female....she's coming home with me!!

This is Krysten's first ride on Freddie.

AWANA Grand Prix

Last week we had the annual AWANA Grand Prix. All the kids really enjoy this event. They get to make their own cars, and then race them during the Grand Prix. There are prizes for speed and design.

This was Kylee's first year to participate and she painted her car all by herself. She was so excited. During the race she won about 3 times (it's double elimination).

"Cullenized"

As a friend of mine has put it... I have been "Cullenized."

At first I was not particular interested in reading Twilight, but Tracey was totally into the books (along with all her friends) and would talk in what I called 'twilight-speak' all the time. I finally decided that if I wanted to have an idea as to what Tracey kept talking about I'd better read it.

I never expected to get totally hooked.

At the same time, a lot of the staff at my school started reading them as well. So we ended up having our own Twilight fan club.

I started them during testing so I had lots of time to read. For those of you who are unaware-- during testing there is not a lot for the teacher to do. You are not allowed to leave the room, or be disruptive. It can take 2 or more hours for all the kids to finish (no one is allowed to leave or do anything until the last test is picked up). The rules even say that the only thing that the students are allowed to do is read. You can only mindlessly surf the internet for so long. This year our testing was spread out over 3 long weeks.

So, instead what did I do to occupy my time? I read the entire Twilight Saga. In 9 days.

Penny Park

Penny Park is our community built park here in Silver City. The money to build it was raised by the community and it got its name because the schools in town held a fundraiser where all the kids brought in pennys to help fund the park.

It's a great place to take your kids, there's a little kid side and a big kid side. There's an ampitheater, climbing walls, and a large covered eating area. We've spent many, many hours at this park.

This morning I heard that the park and burned, however I don't know the details. Luckily the entire park didn't burn, just the main play structure. I pray that it will be rebuilt, it is a great park for our kids.

I drove by the park this evening and this is what I saw:

These two pictures (above and below) are before and after pictures, as close as I could find.



The square structure on the left is what used to be the bottom of the slide. Tracey always called it the "dragon slide" because of the dragon motif on the side.

**Update**

Here is a link to the local newspaper and the article and pictures that appeared today.

http://www.scdailypress.com/index.php?pSetup=silvercitydailypress&curDate=20090420&pageToLoad=showFreeArticle.php&type=art&index=01

Happy Late Easter

As I was scanning through pictures to blog about this morning I saw these Easter shots and realized I had totally forgotten to blog them. So, almost a week late, here are our Easter egg coloring shots. My kids plowed through 25 eggs in about 10 minutes.

Global warming seems to be only a myth!

Whatever happened to Spring?

Nobody writes a song called "I'm Dreaming of a White Easter." Yet that's what happened over the weekend. Hello!!! It's April!!!!!!

The weather has been cold, windy and generally miserable. I hate the wind, especially with my job, being outside teaching PE in the wind. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I will wear my hair in a bun for the next 2 months because of the wind. Grrr....

Where is that fabled thing called Global Warming???? Newscasters keep threatening that it's happening but I AM NOT seeing it. And I am not happy about it. I am so ready for it to get warm!!

Wind, wind,
Go away,
Come again some other day!!!!

A Walk to Remember

Once again Krysten has had an accident. But we can't really blame it all on her. She was at the mercy of her 12 year old sister!

Here is an account of the events of the evening.

Tracey asked if she could take the girls for a walk. "Sure," we said. "That would be great, thank you."

That's so nice, Tracey taking her little sisters for a walk while we cooked dinner...

Later Aaron called Tracey and told her dinner was ready. He could hear screaming in the background but Tracey said it was just Krysten crying and she had it under control. Since screaming is a usual part of our day we were not alarmed.

We mentioned to each other how happy we were that Tracey was willing to deal with the situation instead of having us come and bail her out.

When they returned we immediately noticed her face. According to Tracey the wagon tipped over and she didn't notice until Krysten started screaming.

How do you not notice??? Oh ya, she's 12 and had invited another 12 yr old on the walk. 12 + 12 equals 5.

Apparently the wagon had tipped over and had run over Krysten.

Again, how do you not notice this????

Later we asked Kylee what happened and since she doesn't know yet how to lie for her sisters she was very forthcoming with one very important detail. They were running!!! Ay yi yi.

On a dirt road? With lots of ruts and potholes? Why am I so not surprised?!?!

This picture does not do the black eye justice. It really is much worse than it appears.

Stay tuned for a post involving roadside discipline and the police! I'll save that for another day and leave ya hangin'...

Cinderella does the cooking in my house!!!

**Disclaimer: Immediately after taking this picture, the oil from the pan splattered on her hand and she dropped the hot spoon on her leg and started crying and I had to rescue her.

Happy 12th Birthday Tracey!!!