This just in...

Colorado also kicks ass.

This just in...

Whistler kicks ass.

In case you can't tell from the downhiller guns and the sleeveless jersey, yes that is Shan on the right.

When Dad is away...

Dave is out of town for the weekend.  He's racing the Giro de Ville on a sort of guys gettaway retreat and it sounds like, from the one quick call he could manage from a pay phone (not many bars where he is) they're having a blast. He deserves a weekend without being plugged in, he's been working so hard lately and I know he's been really excited about this one.

It's also a three day weekend.  Normally, holiday weekends seem to pass like no time at all but when you're on your own, with no plans and only a couple of panty bears for company, three days is truly a long weekend.  But, at the end of my first day alone here at the house, I've come up with a few rules for when Daddy bear goes out of town.

     - Spread out.  Normally, I'm out and dead asleep at 10pm or earlier but when Dave is out of town, for some reason, I really don't get tired.  Well, that's not true at all, I'm actually exhausted but I can't seem to sleep.  I think it's because there's too much room.  So, I plan ahead, of course, and get as many pillows, and bears, into the bed as I can.  You'd be surprised how much room Bailey can fill when she wants to.  And I apparently sleep like a starfish when he's not here because I wake up in the oddest positions.  Problem solved.
     - Make some noise.  Play music, turn on a fan, have something on TV, it's important to fill the silence a bit.  Like with this...  http://iLike.com/s/OFw We just saw them play in Richmond on Thursday, I think this video was a tribute they did at Virginia Tech after the shootings.  Great local band.  With lyrics like "your laughter is my light", you can't go wrong.
    - Catch up with folks.  Got to chat with a few friends on the phone, Dad stopped by and sat for a bit, emailed some people I hadn't responded to lately, and actually wrote a letter.  Felt good, felt relaxed.
    - Face your fears.  It never fails that when Dave is gone, I inevitably come into close contact with my nemesis.  And this time, it was a huge black widow who had decided that under my potting soil bag would be a perfect place to lie and wait to scare the ever loving crap out of me.  So Bender growled and I stared at it for a while and then we threw things at it until it met its demise.  I know, it was outside so technically under the pre-arranged rules of our family, it should live to see another person scream like a small child but when my husband/saint is away, all bets are off for local arachnids.  Fear the wrath.

Can we also acknowledge how incredibly brave I had to be in order to get this shot?  Thanks.

     - Clean.  I did the floors and kitchen today, tackling the bath tub and closets tomorrow.  Boo yah.  I know, I'm well aware of the fact that this shouldn't excite me as much as it does but I'm sure there are plenty of women out there who know that small victories like these are hard to come by.

     - Notice what you miss.  His presence, or lack of, is manifested in a lot of ways that I don't normally acknowledge when it's filled.  The other toothbrush, his bikes in the shed.  But the number one thing that I don't want to ever lose when he leaves is how much we miss him when he's gone.  Bender has been sitting at the front door all night waiting to hear his car in the driveway.

     

We wuv you, Daddy!

In other news, we've had a busy spring with work picking up for both of us and some big things on the horizon.  We decided to put off building the house for a year to save up some money and make sure we're not building anything we don't want.  We were excited to get started but it definitely feels like the right decision.  

I've been promoting the hell out of this year's tour.  Two weeks to go!

And, not only have I not managed to kill anything so far this spring, I've actually planted a few other items and they seem to not hate life yet either!  I do wonder why anyone would ever buy an annual plant though.  I ruin enough things in the garden on my own, I definitely don't need plants that are guaranteed to not return.  Interesting.  

And we're trying really hard not to miss these guys too much though we've definitely thought about how much it would take to bribe them all to move back here!  hint, hint.  :)

Rockin the Shamrock

Fast has never looked this good. Until now.

The Shan-Shan 3 week racing binge has begun.

Thaw

First run today on the trails in over a month.  Maybe longer.  Still tons of snow to melt (I'm calling June before that pile in Barracks Rd. is gone) and the damage from this winter has most certainly been done.

That's a piece of our singletrack here on the farm.  And that's a 6 foot hole made by the root ball of the tree tipping over.  Just one of many.  Lucky for me (and a lot of dirt loving other folks in central VA), Dave has been kindly spending his lunch breaks digging out and packing down so we can all hit the trails again.  

I've also been strolling around the land that is now "ours".  Well, legally now, at least.  I definitely didn't see owning something, especially a piece of land, feeling this different.  But I think it might be the longevity we're looking at with this spot.  The memories and experiences we'll have there and all the times we'll walk those trails are all to be determined and that's really exciting.  Dave, the romantic he only shows me when it's right, had this idea.  And, yes Dad, it's on a tree that we won't have to cut down to build the house.

But, with all the excitement comes lots of planning.  Anyone that knows me can probably figure out that I love the planning process.  But this is kind of going quickly for my comfort zone.  When we decided on our roof in about 5 minutes and 3 drawings, I knew I was out of my league a bit.  But, if we did it my way, we'd be in the house by the time we would need to renovate it for wheelchairs so I think this is good.  

To fill you in on the basic idea, we're trying to do a two-story great room/kitchen with a guest room loft. The master bedroom will be off to one side of the house with a breezeway to attach it.  The walk out basement underneath the great room will have the "extra" :) rooms.  Probably two.  Haha, that still seems weird.  

On the never-a-dull-moment front, Bailey decided to let her winter boredom show and eat her way through a nylon folding chair in the back of our car one day.  Then she spent all night destroying the plants I work so hard not to kill myself and threw it all up on one 5 pound ball of mesh net, nylon, ribbon (in the plant), and leaves.  Can a plant live without photosynthesis?  We'll see if this little guy can answer that question.  

Thanks, munchkin.

Soooo innocent.  

  

Not much traffic

Pros to #2 crazy huge snowstorm in one winter:

• We're getting more snow than Leslie in NH who moved up there for skiing options
• Watching Bailey try and squat pee in a foot of snow is pretty funny
• We had first tracks on the trails this morning
• It's beautiful
• Being snowed in is super cozy
• It's Friday, so we have no plans and can hunker down for the weekend
• Hitting Dave with snow balls is fun
• Makes for great pictures

Cons to #2 crazy huge snowstorm in one winter:

• We only have 3 inches on the ground, they're predicting another 20 in 24 hours
• For crazy huge snow storm #1, Bailey just resorted to peeing on the front mat 
• It's freaking cold
• I'm 99% positive we're going to lose power again
• The dogs smell almost moldy at this point
• We're running out of firewood - as in, this weekend.  Which, with the inevitable power loss, could prove to be a problem
• My "workout" will now consist of running in place, jumping jacks, and other forms of horribly embarrassing acts to keep from gaining the "snowstorm five"
• Dad is ready to jump off his roof
• Our local news anchors seem to believe that the end of mankind is near and that there's NOTHING going on in the world besides this snow storm

Here's a little snapshot of my recent trip to NH to see Cody-licious, les, and Mom - and then some of what we've been doing around the house lately.

These are the faces I had to leave

But this is the face that I got to see

We went for walks

We moved some furniture

We found some sticks

And we did a lot of swinging

Back home on the racho relaxo, we've been hanging pictures, baking cookies, and preparing for the apocalypse

Wedding pictures are up!

And some of our favorite nieces and nephews!  

Yum

Bailey is less than thrilled at not being able to chase the squirrelies 

Christmas, Hampshire style.

So we finally got ourselves dug out on Monday, packed up the bears and headed north.  13 hours later we were in our cabin at Pawtuckaway state park.

It was a different kind of week and in the end, I'm not sure it was my favorite.  Not saying that we didn't have fun and, more importantly, get to spend some quality time with people we care about.  It just felt... transient.  We became one of those families who spent christmas morning on a highway and I was surprised at how many other cars were doing the same.  Maybe that's what the rest of the world has done every christmas and we just never realized how normal it was.  We were lucky to have what we did for so long but of course, at the time, we never knew it.    

I loved walking the bears on the awesome trails near our cabin with Dave.  We really felt like a family at those moments.  I loved seeing Cody and doing my best to make him laugh, which, I thought, went pretty well considering that the reactions most children have towards being held by me are usually a combination of upchucking and screaming all at once.  I loved doing plyometrics with les and baking a pecan pie with mom.  I loved playing Mario cart with Cam and winning every game at Trivial Pursuit.  :)  I loved reading, sleeping in, and although it was sad, spending some time really absorbing how much in our lives is changing.

What a transition year.  New job, new house, new traditions, new family arrangements, new training programs.  I really found it hard to get in the holiday spirit this year and I'm still not sure why.  I wasn't upset about it though, just not in the mood.  I'm trying to acknowledge all these changes as they come and not judge myself for how I'm feeling.  I suppose that's the only way I know how to handle it all for now.

Pictures!!

Christmas lights in our cabin from our welcome party!  Thanks!

Our daily walks.

View from the back of our cabin.

Cody-licious in his first christmas morning.  Should've captured the santa pants.

Best laugh ever.  He cackles like an old man.  Yes, mom, I'll get you a copy.  :)

This is how Bailey spent the whole trip home.

Which was long because most of NY and MD looked like this.

Snow and berries.

It was  Saturday, December 19th, and we were supposed to leave for New Hampshire for a very abnormal christmas with the Rooke family.  Then it started to snow.  Well, it started the night before and by 10am on Saturday, our porch looked like this...

And it was still coming down.  Obviously not leaving that day, or probably not the next either (Virginia really doesn't get this much snow very often so knowing how to clear it with its one plow is a baffling thing to say the least), we hunkered down until we lost power... for two days.

But decided to get out and make the most of it with a walk with the bears, who LOVED it.

These are snow berries.  Also currently known as Bailey Berries.  Her hair is so long that she collects snow on her back legs when she walks through it.  Sort of like frozen dreads.  Pretty hysterical if you're us and watching her awkwardly waddle her way down the trail but not so much if you're her and they take hours to melt or pull chunks of your hair off.

So there was tons of down time and wondering when we'd be able to turn the lights on, finish our load of laundry, or finish packing.  The snow didn't stop coming down for 36 hours and we ended up getting about 23 inches of it.  Didn't get out on Sunday either but had another nice stroll, this time with the sun.

Dave threw some ball.

And, of course, more bailey berries.  I think this is the one that took her hair off.

And I became an angel.  Keep your comments to yourselves, there, family.

We finally got dug out enough to leave on Monday morning.  Well, precariously.  Stay tuned for nephew Cody's first christmas and our lovely new years with friends in Richmond.

Here's to making the best memories of 2009 our worst in 2010.

Love you all.