Go away germs!

It's been a rough couple of days here :( Nick stayed home with Cayle last Friday. Cayle had a cough/runny nose much of last week and we decided he should stay home Friday and rest. By Monday, he was still under the weather, but not too bad, so he was going to go to the babysitter. That is, until he threw up 3 times in about an hour Monday morning. It happened to be a one-hour school delay so we had time to run him to the dr. before work on Monday. They said he must have had a stomach thing and keep him home. So, Nick stayed home with Cayle on Monday too.

Then, Monday night, Nick started complaining of a stomachache. I of course felt he had eaten too much dinner and dismissed him. Wrong. Poor guy spent the night being grossly sick. About 4 am I woke up to a thud. Turns out the thud was Nick passing out and hitting the wall. Needless to say that was the end of his "home treatment" and off we went to the ER.

Thank goodness for friends! Emily came over right away and stayed with Cayle. Then Torrey and Alana headed over and helped get Cayle fed and ready for the babysitter. Torrey took Cayle to the babysitter. How helpful they all were!

Once we got Nick some fluids and nausea meds at the hospital, he got some sleep and was discharged. Nick spent all of Tuesday sleeping and trying to catch up on his rest.

I was looking forward to relaxing Tuesday night, but Cayle showed up after work with a rash! Ugh! So I took him back to the dr. where they ruled out roseola and strep. Which left us at Cayle having a cough, stomach thing and a rash. Not very informative!

The boys both woke up on Wednesday feeling a little better. Nick made it through a whole day of work and seems to be feeling stronger. Cayle was a "little more" happier at the babysitters today...and he didn't throw up once! Pretty successful day :)

Here's to health!

Schools to Watch

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This is Super cool! We made Schools to Watch in Colorado! Meaning that our school is one that is a good model for other schools in the state to try to model themselves after!

Congratulations to our 2011 Schools to Watch!

Colorado Press Release

It gives me great pleasure to officially welcome and introduce you to our wonderful (CAMLE) Colorado Association of Middle Level Education 2011 Colorado Trailblazer Schools to Watch.

These schools exemplify the four critieria outlined by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform:

• Academic Excellence
• Developmental Responsiveness
• Social Equity
• Strong Organizational Structures and Cultures

We are indeed fortunate to designate six fabulous new Schools to Watch and one redesignation. It was a challenging year as we reviewed and visited more schools than ever before. As you may know, last year we designated no new schools and affirmed only one redesignation. But neither snow nor sleet will keep CAMLE away from validating success in action.

Welcome Aboard!

• Altona Middle School – Longmont (St. Vrain)
• Gypsum Creek Middle School – Gypsum (Eagle County)
• Hotchkiss K-8 School – Hotchkiss (Delta County)
• Jenkins Middle School – Colorado Springs (District 11)
• Powell Middle School – Littleton (Littleton)
• Steamboat Springs Middle School – Steamboat Springs (Steamboat)

Welcome Back!

• Russell Middle School – Colorado Springs (District 11)

Higher Altitude = Longer Life

A new study suggests that people who live at altitude may live longer lives...

http://outside-blog.away.com/blog/2011/03/does-living-at-high-altitude-help-you-live-longer.html

The Creek Kart Path Krit (Time Trial)

My Weapon Of Choice

Ok, so after work yesterday I headed out for a ride with Cayle in the Chariot. It had been snowing earlier in the day, but when I got out at 4, it was sunny and a little windy, but fairly nice. Since the golf course opened a week or so ago, I haven't been riding the cart path anymore. But today was perfect since the snow had covered the course, but the path was clear. So after one loop around the course, I decided to do another. However, this time I decided I wanted a bit of intensity, and while mulling over my options to make that happen, I decided to do a TT of the entire loop. Keep in mind that even though I was pushing it pretty good, I was forced to take it easier in some of the corners due to the fact that I was pulling my 10 mo. old son in the stroller.

While riding, I decided that this may be a cool challenge for like-minded locals looking for a little competitive challenge. The course consists of lots of rollers, one major VO2 max 2 ish minute granny granny climb, and lots of false flats. It's a ton-o-fun to ride!

Course Details:
- Start on the first path after you turn onto Cotton Ranch Dr off of Black Bear Dr, heading south
- Complete that loop and cross Whitetail Dr onto the other path
- After a bit, that takes you back to Cotton Ranch Dr, where you cross the road, and turn left on the sidewalk for just a few seconds before making another left crossing the road back onto the path
- After a couple of minutes you will arrive at the only major climb, after climbing this, cross the road and continue on the path, stay on the main path, don't take any of the side little trails to the individual holes, after about 5 ish minutes up on top, you cross the road again on an ultra steep descent (watch out for the sharp turn at the bottom of this)
- Continue following the path and it will bring you out to Black Bear Dr
- Cross the road again to the other path. This section of path only lasts a few minutes, then you cross the road again to the final section of path, as soon as you cross the road, you come to a Y... take a left to finish the ride on this section of false flat back up to Cotton Ranch Dr.

After you finish, take note of your time and distance.

I realize that now is not the best time to be doing this ride with the golf operations starting back up. But maybe in the fall... Please do not ride on the course while there are people golfing! We don't want to make them hate cyclist. Remember, there are no non golf related activities on the course during golfing hours. Ride at your own risk, but be careful! Post your times on my facebook on the comment section.
Please list:
Date/Name/Time/Distance/Weapon of Choice/Weather Conditions

Wedding

We just decided the other day that it may be nice to have the rest of our wedding pictures. It's kinda fun looking through them all and reminiscing... Seems like just yesterday, but also a long time ago.... pre Cayle, pre the move to Colorado, pre lots of things I guess.... :)

Pants, Weight, & Bike Racing

Living in IL and bike racing on flat or mostly flat ground, body weight wasn't much of a concern. I mean, I was athletic, and in pretty good shape just because I was riding about 250 miles a week, and naturally you are going to be pretty fit. Once we moved out here, and I started doing the mountain bike races, I began to notice that on the (flatter) races, I was good, and on the long climb races, I was really bad! I first attributed it to just not being able to climb or the altitude, and then after that, tried to drop a bit of weight. The past 2 seasons I was racing at about 183-185 lbs. Just getting the same results over and over. My dad say's...(Has to be his favorite saying) "Do you know the meaning of insanity? It's doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result." So basically, I was doing the same thing every season, in just trying to increase my power on the bike through different training, but not really doing much with my weight.

This season instead of falling into the same trap (insanity) I decided to mix it up a bit.
My goal was to drop to a racing weight of 175 lbs. I thought this would allow me to be much quicker uphill. It's kind of tricky for endurance athletes to cut weight while training, because if you don't eat enough, you hurt your recovery which in turn hurts your performance, but if you eat too much, your not losing any weight. After I hit 175 with no loss of power, I decided to drop it down to 170. I am almost there now, 171.4 lbs. I have been very careful with watching what I eat, and just eating very healthy and clean. I have been tracking my calories on Lose it and this has allowed me to cut the weight I wanted. (It is kind of tedious and a pain at times, but def. works!) So hopefully the lower body weight will help me get to where I want to be this racing season...(a win would be nice!)

A side effect of the lower body weight (a good one) is that none of my clothes fit anymore. They are all too big! Most noticeable are my khakis for school. I hate spending money on clothes, but love having new clothes! So I finally broke down and ordered 2 new pair of pants and a belt from Old Navy. Ordered 32x34, same size I wore through high school... and got them in today. I was excited to have new clothes, but they are too big! No Way! After I ballooned up to 245 lbs (ya, no joke! lots of pepsi's... and fast food and sleeping) my soph. year of college, I never imagined I would be back in a size 32 waist! Now a 32 waist is even too big! Gonna have to exchange for a 30 or a 31 I reckon... I know this is a good problem, but it's kind of annoying... :-)

Hopefully I'll get some pants soon that fit, and the mountain bike season will be a good one for myself and Yeti's Grind, my new team. I'm excited about it, and excited to be able to have Cayle cheering me on!

Finally

Took Cayle with me to Silverthorne for an oil change this afternoon. While we were there, we got out for a nice 45 minute run along the Blue River. Beautiful! Got a couple caramel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.... YUM!!! Then got to watch the Fighting Illini put a BEAT DOWN on UNLV tonight. FINALLY they played good defense and good offense in the same game! They looked good, now to keep it going against Bill Self and Kansas.....

Rocky Mountain Sunrise

Chariot Graduation

We've been talking about it for a couple of weeks now. Tonight, Cayle finally graduated from his infant sling. The infant sling is a hammock like swing that gave him a smoother ride, and was great for him to sleep in, but restricted him from looking out the side windows. Instead of sitting and looking out, he was more laying down and looking up and forward. At about 10 mos. or about 22 lbs they say they are fine to ride inside the Chariot sitting up (or when they can hold their head up if you hit a pothole.) We decided Cayle was ready to sit in the Chariot like a big boy, so he could look out the windows while we ride or walk with him. Tonight we walked to the library with Rusty to pick up a couple of books. He loved being able to watch Rusty out the window, and was talking to him while we were walking. Just another step toward growing up.

As you can see from the pictures, he enjoyed all his time snoozin in the sling under the warmth of the bunting bag!

Recent pics

Hard to believe, but at one time, not too long ago, this car seat was way too big for him....

Oh No! Cayle got his first bloody nose! Luckily, I had the camera out and could take a pic! :-)
This is my shot at professional photography.
Rusty loves playing with Cayle - Cayle loves playing with Rusty. It's a win-win, now if he can teach Rusty to run a couple miles around the yard every day to get in shape!
Natalie calls this Cayle's GQ pose. It does look like he's posing with his leg and all! I love the blue outfits that he wears. It really brings out the blue in his eyes!

Ash Wednesday

Whew! What a crazy week with parent teacher conferences and all! This makes 2 crazy weeks in a row! I tutored tonight till 5, then Natalie came back out and picked me up, and we went to mass for Ash Wednesday. Cayle got his first ashes, and didn't seem to mind at all! He did great in church, so as a reward afterward we took him out for Mexican at Mi Pueblo. He loved it! He had refried beans and mexican rice. Mommy and daddy enjoyed it as well with fish tacos and a taco salad. Just a nice little treat right smack dab in the middle of the week. One more day of PT conferences, then a 2 1/2 day weekend. Done at noon on Friday.

What you Laughin at Willis???

Just laughing it up!

Competitiveness

My competitiveness came out to play a bit today. Cayle and I were out for a bike ride on the bike path about 10 minutes from the house. I was pushing the pace pretty good, and this guy on his bike, on the road comes by me at a pretty high rate of speed. I had no idea he was there, but he passed me so quickly, it was like he was issuing a challenge... (that's what it seemed like to me..) So what did I do you ask? Why, I chased him down. Even though I was on the bike path, with a much less direct route, and also pulling Cayle in the chariot, I caught him about 10 minutes later, just outside of Eagle. As I pull even with him, he turns to me and says, "you must have been really movin, because there was no way I thought you would catch me pulling that kiddie trailer!" Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside in a sick sort of way! Then he tells me that he had to work his butt off just to catch and pass me in the first place (which is why he came by me so fast.) I rode with and talked to him a bit, bid him a good day, and headed home, extremely pleased with myself! :-)

Backflips

Cayle has always loved hanging upside down, but now he has begun this new thing, where when you are holding him up, he just leans over backwards, and wants to do a backflip. Here he is doing them with Natalie.

He loves to LAUGH!

Natalie had Cayle cracking up last night before bed. He has so much energy, and just loves to laugh! We love listening to him laugh! Hope you do too!