Thursday, May 25, 2006

To The Winds of the West

Early Friday morning I am off to the next direction of the Trackers of Light Medicine Wheel.

I think this direction will be good for me. I also think this direction will be a challenging as the first was, and continues to be.

Click HERE for a little information about the journey and little bit about the West direction. Weaver is a part of my Iu (spelling?) or a part of my village. The 30 or so people who I am learning this with are considered my Iu or village, family.

Shannon and I talked a little bit about Grandma when we were together in California. It is interesting that we both think of Grandma often and we both still feel her strongly in our lives. I feel her with me as I move into this next direction.

I will do my best to tell you about it when I get home.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Barkerville Rush Relay

Just for you it's an Ultramarathon of pictures from the Ultramarathon. It was great to see so many Kamloops runner's out there having a good time and running so strong.

Let me introduce you to our team leader and our stage 3 runner: Jim. As you can see from the picture he is a tough leader and ran a very tight ship.



I had to put in the flying hat picture. Here is Chubb and the flying hat. Chubb ran leg 7 for us, it may have been the hardest leg on the course. He had to slog up hill in waist deep snow and muck for us, I think it took him about 45 minutes to the top of the hill and just a little over 15 minutes to run back down. He had the third fastest overall time for leg 7 which was 1:06:42.



Chubb and Darla (Darla is Jim's better half I will post more on Darla in just a minute)



Here is a picutre of Karen and I goofing off the night before the race. Karen was going to a leg of the race for us but ended up out on an injury. She was our support team and cheerleader and was just fun to have as part of our team!



The Hat Trick: Darla, Karen and Penny.



Race Day: The start of the race, pictured here are Nicole (who ran on our team) with Brenda (another amazing Kamloops runner). Nicole ran what may have been one of her strongest runs ever and this right on the heals of completeing her first 1/2 marathon in Vancouver only 2 weeks ago. She had an uphill battle the whole way and I was impressed at how strong she ran it.



Here is a picture of my run. You already saw the only picture of me I have so here is the graph off my GPS. The green line is the elevation, the red line is my heart rate. (Don't worry, it is normal for me to have my heart rate totally erratic for the first mile of any run) As you can see I settle right down and stay consistent once I am warmed up. I had a great run 10.62 miles in 1:44:10. I was totally happy with my run, it was the longest distance I have run in a month or more.



Jim ran leg 3, he had a great run too. I think everyone on our team ran a great race. Jim ran a very challenging leg of the race and he did it in 1:41:35 17K with tons of uphill.



Jim handed off stage 4 to Brian (Karen's husband) Brian is a strong runner, he ran his 17 K in 1:25:18. Remember when you are comparing everyone's times that the terrain was different for each of us. Brian's leg was a slow and steady uphill run. I have some closeup photos of the runners, but I wanted you all to get an idea of beautiful the race course was. (Trust me the race courseq itself is prettier than runner's working their @$$E$$ off)


I love this picture of Darla. She is almost to the top of the biggest hill she had to run (and it was big) I love the determination on he face, she owns this hill.



Darla handed off leg 5 to Penny (Penny is Chubb's better half) Penny underestimated herself and traded for a leg of the race she felt would be easier for her. I don't think she realized what a strong runner she is and in the end she felt she could have done a more difficult leg than she traded for! She ran her leg so well that I am sure she will be looking for a more difficult leg next year.



I have no photos of leg 7 which Chubb ran, it was the only leg of the run that involved trail and he got to run it in blissful privacy. Leg 8 was run by a lovely lady that joined us at the last minute. She is a local to the area and she ran out last leg looking very strong and relaxed. Thank you Deborah!

We went out there to have a great time and just to enjoy the race. We surprised ourselves by taking 3rd place in the Recreational Category, which was just a bonus on top of a great weekend. Our time for the Barkerville Rush Relay 9:59:53 (1ooK)

Look what I found in my luggage when I got home. I sure missed Paul and the kids over the weekend!

Friday, May 19, 2006

And Their Off!!!

We have had a busy week.

A couple of months ago we came by a free trailer. We like to take the kids camping and we had tent trailer that we used. It very old, had no amenities, but got us off the ground. It was great. We have upgraded to this trailer for a camping this year.

It needed work (what free trailer wouldn't?) Paul has been working on it for a couple of weeks. Fixing the broken door, ripping out the flooring, doing the electrical. All kinds of stuff. I did a lot of cleaning (as did Paul!) Steam cleaned cushions, scrubbed walls, the oven you name it its been cleaned.

Paul is taking the kids camping in it tomorrow. He is meeting some of the ball team at Wells Grey Golf course and campground to golf and camp (go figure) He will have tons of fun and lots of help with the kids. I bet he even get to golf.

(Just a little side note, The Giggle Queen kindly broke her finger playing softball for the Barking Cows. I say kindly because she is a golfer herself and is unable to golf right now. Our kids love her and will surely sucker her into baby sitting while Paul plays a round I am sure. I have to add that I think The Giggle Queen is especially kind because she was playing second base at the time the incident occurred. We both like to play second so we often switch in and out. She was playing second base while I was in Ca. Without me to switch off with. I am quite sure that if I had been home the bad bounce would have happened on my turn on second and that The Giggle Queen took for me. Thank you Giggle Queen!)

There is a point to all this. While Paul and the kids are having a great time camping I will be here doing this. It will be tons of fun. I will be running the second leg of the race, you can click on stage 2 if you want to see what I will be up to on Sunday morning.

I am looking forward to the run, we will have a great time. There are 17 teams registered for the race and of those 6 are from Kamloops. I think it is very cool to see Kamloops represented with so many teams and so many great people. It is fun to be a part of the running community here and very cool to see how much it has grown in such a short amount of time.

I will take my camera with me. I will be heading out of town after work tomorrow and I will back sometime Monday. I will let you know how it goes. Send good running vibes all day Sunday, its a long race!




Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Did you get Them Right?

As long as we are talking about cute little bums that you just want to pinch. (Google that phrase!) When Angie and I ran down to Safeway for beer, this is what we found when we got back.



Don't you just want to pinch them??



Yesterdays Post:
Reading from left to right on your screen the bums are: PJ, Quentin, Sebastian and Layne.
Did you get them right?? Your comments made me laugh. I can't wait to hear what you have to say about this one!

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

This and That

A couple of days ago it was only 6C out side and we were all wondering if spring was ever coming to The Loops. Then the next day it jumped up to 15C and then to 20C today we have jumped right from spring into what is feeling like summer. It is about 37C right now, I think that puts it somewhere up in the 90'sF. It feels very hot to me, I think it came to quickly for my body to adjust to the heat.

The kids are having a great time today I put the sprinkler on under the trampoline and they jumped in the water for about an hour. Here they are warming up in the sun after their soak.



I even had to start up the airconditioner today, this took some doing. But I will make a long storey short. It was winterized and I had to uncover it and flip the power on and all that stuff. It sounds so simple doesn't it? It was simple, but somehow I managed to step on one of the screws I had to pull out of the cover. OUCH! It's a small thing, but it sure hurt.

The bottom of my foot is pretty sore. I have a softball game tonight, and the Wednesday run clinics start up again tomorrow. Feet are funny, a very small injury and you are limping like you broke your ankle. I have a 10 mile race on Sunday too!

Hey look: A pair of socks!

This is one of the gifts mom gave me for my birthday. I got very spoiled. Some beautiful sock yarn, a new sock book with so many patterns in it I would like to knit I don't know which one to try first, a set of bamboo dpn's and this:

It's called a yarntainer and it rocks. I carry a knitting project with me every where I go and this is perfect. As you can see I have two projects in it right now. It keeps everything neat and tidy and no more dropped stitches on my traveling project.

Shannon, your socks should be done just in time for summer! Nothing like some wool socks for a California summer.

Thursday, May 11, 2006

California Photos

I thought I would start sharing some of the pictures from the trip to California. There are lots of them to share so I will pace myself.

I took this picture for the Canadians I know and love: check out the price of Guinness!! And just so you know, it tastes better at this price. Oh yeah, do you know where I bought it? The grocery store in Patterson, it was right there next to the cheese.



One of my favorite wines and see how reasonably priced it is? Also found at your corner market.



Some pictures of the kids. This one is Sebastian and PJ, they are having a great time on the swing set at mom's house. We all had tons of fun at mom's. There are lots of animals, lots of room and the weather was wonderful.



I just loved this picture of Quentin so I threw it in.



Going on a treasure hunt at Grandma Elayne's house (my mom). Grandma supplied the baskets and we were off.



It was so cool that Darryl decided to join us. He took down this nest for PJ, it was a barn swallow nest. See the eggs. They will take them down if they are empty or have eggs, but they leave them alone if there are babies in them. They take them down because the birds make a poopy mess.



I love this picture, Darryl caught red handed helping the kids pick flowers.



I will share more soon!

Monday, May 08, 2006

If Found Please Return To...

The lack of blogging has been due to the loss of mind. If anyone stumbles accross it please return it to me. You will know it when you see it. No, No it's not that pile of rocks, that's Paul's. Mine is grey and mushy, very mushy.



Here we are at the Oakland airport for our return trip home. Do you see how my mind got lost in the shuffle? Don't worry we are home safe and I am resting comfortably.



Here is a picture of the kids being good on the airplane. They loved the airplane rides.

We had a good trip and thank you so much to everyone for letting us stay with them. I will post more pictures for you later. Blogger is loading pictures to slowly tonight to try to post more. I am still playing catch up on sleep so I am going to snuggle into bed now.

Friday, May 05, 2006

I'm Sorry











I am sorry I have not posted the whole trip. I have no time. The kids seem to require my attention constantly. They seem to have trouble sleeping while we are on the road.

Quentin in paticular cries and cries when it comes to bed time. One night he cried until 10:30, by the time he was done I was ready for some tears of my own. We have had a great time, I will do a couple of posts about the trip over the next few days.

I am trying to get us packed up, we fly out tomorrow at 10:30, I am going to try to leave here (Dad's) by 7:30 so I have time to drop off the rental car and take the bus to the airport, deal with all the baggage and check in. It takes almost an hour just to drop off the rental car and get to the airport. I have a lot of stuff to drag along on my own and that is one reason why it takes so long.

I am waiting for the kids to settle down so I can get the packing done. Once this post is up the computer goes into the suitcase.

Today was fun, I spent the morning shopping with Shannon and the kids. Mom told me about Bare Escentials makeup and Shannon and I went to the store to check it out. Needless to say we both left looking beautiful but with are wallets a little lighter. Thanks mom. Angie we missed you, but I figured sleeping was a good reason not to be there.

I came back to Dad's and fed the kids some lunch. Then we attempted quiet time (dad is still wondering when quiet time starts) After that Corinne did some fun science stuff with the kids. Will, Morgan and Taylor came over for pizza and the kids ran around and all got all wound up. It was fun and crazy and we got some great photos.

I am sorry about the order of this post, I tried to move some pictures around and they just disappeared. I will try to post the ones I lost later (they were of the kids playing mad scientists with Corinne) I don't want to move anymore for fear of losing them, so you get them all before the text. I need to pack and try for some sleep.