The craziness of El Tour de Tucson is now over and we are still tired.
There were 1,225 riders for just the 66 mile race and my fantastic hubby came in 429th place with a time of 4 hours and 12 minutes. Just awesome.
Now El Tour has several races. The key race is the 109 miler then there is the 80, 66 and 35, plus an 8 mile fun ride. There was 8,245 total racers. The big boys do the 109 miles in 4 hours. Pure craziness. the slowest for the 109 was 11 hours. For the race that Rob did the slowest was 7.5 hours. So we are all very proud.
Rob rode with his friend from church James and they started together but finished ten minutes apart with James finishing 351st with a time of 4 hours 2 minutes.
Now the behind the scenes story.

Kelly and Grandmom went up to the aid station that was positioned at about the halfway point of Rob's race to work with her Girl Scout troop. Myself, my Mom, Wyatt and Chelsea went to the start line. I hung out with the guys and then went to the street to take a picture as the guys rode past.
As we headed back to the truck my mom notices that the driver side door is wide open. Oh CRAP!! I took off running to find nothing missing just that Rob forgot to shut his door. Jitters I guess :)
The plan was for me and my gang to meet up with Kelly and Grandmom to get pictures of Rob racing and a picture of Kelly and Daddy. My mom and I stopped by a scrapbook store on the way up.
I swear I was not there that long!!
We got caught in the traffic as the racers were climbing a hill right beside us. Looky Lou's and all that. finally get to the aid station and I missed Rob by ten minutes or less. I'm freaking out... I missed my shots and he's heading for the finish time.
In my defense, he made it to the aid station faster than any of us including Rob thought he would.
So Kelly's troop leader let Kelly go because, now get this, she was the only scout from her troop to show! and she had worked non stop, even my mother in law was still frantically cutting up fruit for all the riders. Bless my my mother in law she stayed even after Kelly left with me to help out. The next scout from her troop to show up was at 1pm and it was just insane, not enough girls, they were running low on food, just pure craziness.
So now I'm frantically driving to get downtown before he crosses the finish line. We HAVE to be there at the finish line. I get stuck trying to get on the highway, and this is because the racers are on the frontage road. My mom is looking to see if she can find Rob in the packs. We get downtown and we are trying to find free parking, yes I'm cheap. I stumble on a space where I proceed to slam on the brakes, throwing everyone forward, so that I can back into a space. I take my camera and take off running for the finish line. I'm about 4 blocks away. My mom, bless her gets Chelsea in the stroller and brings the bigger kids.
I get to the finish line and jockey for a position against the rail to get a good shot. I wait. Mom and the kids catch up. I wait...we wait some more... I'm finally breathing easier now knowing that I didn't miss him crossing the finish line...we wait some more. About a half hour after we got there, I'm straining to see his light gray shirt. ***Note** Have Rob were a bright, simple shirt to spot in the crowd.
I spot him and start cheering and trying to take pictures. I want him to see that we are here, the kids are yelling "Hi Dad", we get a big smile and a wave from him and I snap off another shot as he crosses before we go to meet up with him.
I totally forgot to get a family picture or even a picture of him wearing his medal.
So we all hang out and checkout the booths before we walk the 4 blocks back to the truck. The kids walk up and open the passenger side door .
The door that is supposed to be locked.
I looked at my mom. Come to find out when she went to lock the door on my truck she hit the clicker for her truck. Forgetting the fact that I don't have power locks! Thankfully no one was in the market for a F-150 that afternoon.
So that is the absurdly long update about Rob's first bicycle race. I sure learned a lot and will be better prepared for next year.




So today Rob is still a little tired but otherwise he says he feels great. The crazy man is now talking about doing the 109 next year.
Oh and we have already been searching for a jersey. I found a jersey that is for Poland we have both been there that is red with a white eagle. Should be easy to see from a distance.
We also saw people put things on their helmets and we talked about putting Viking horns. Can't miss that!

*Carrie*

What do you think of this leaf photo?? I'm in the not sure category. I see texture but I think it needs more space surrounding or cropped close. But it pulls me. hhmmm...

In other life altering important news... not really.... One week until El Tour de Tucson!

I will be so happy when it's over. I mean I support my hubby and all but he has been gone every Saturday for training and when he doesn't have to work we have Saturdays as family day.

This Saturday is a bike swap meet and we are all going. I went to these a few years ago as an outing for a photography class. It is all very interesting. The characters you meet down by the University are priceless.

These people are so hard to describe, you have the guys just getting off of work from the bar, the 70 yr old ex dancer(not stripper) who wears a fedora while sitting on the street corner smoking a cigarette. The hippies or naturalists who smell of patchouli. The guys who sell the tricked out chopper bikes wearing their bandannas and tattoos. You might even see a few yuppies in their khakis walking around. It's all very cool. And for a people watcher I just find it all fascinating.

Another thing I have found interesting is watching my youngest try to be like her big sister and brother. If Wyatt leaves his legos on the floor Chelsea will begin playing with them. If the kids are at the table coloring she wants to do it too.

Evidence exhibit #1

please take obvious note of the paper and pencil. The accused was seen heading for the door when she changed her mind and sat down to begin her scribbles. This gave the mommy police time enough to grab my camera and snap a few shots. She looked up at me all pleased as punch and then went right back to scribbling.

When the accused began writing on the floor is when I took the pencil away.

She was then sentenced to nap time.

I later let her color at the table. I really have to keep my eye on her so that she doesn't eat the crayons, otherwise everything washes off. Well except my cuttlebug. Still trying to get the pencil marks off that one.

So I'm off to begin documenting my weekend, I first have to take a photo at Rob's work of all the guys. I guess this is something that corporate needs. I'm hoping to get the guys to loosen up a bit. I sure don't want all grouchies guys.

Have a great weekend.

Good Tuesday Morning. Today I'm hanging with this two sillies as we get some house work done and work on some Christmas cards.
Granted the cards will wait until this cute little midget takes a nap, the baby not the dog, though he is cute too.
I'm hoping that miss C will take a good two hour nap. According to Grandmom the little stinker took a 3 hour nap while I was at a crafty morning.
I feel so jazzed this morning and almost don't know where to start.
I have my second load of stinky clothes in and I finally cut all the coupons, yeah I'm trying that again, and I snapped a couple of photos. Did you know that these were the first photos I've snapped all month, Hello Carrie it's the 10th!!!
I have three quilt projects that I need to get busy on, 65-ish Christmas cards to make, and about three other projects that are Christmas presents that need to be done. Plus I have to factor in the normal cleaning that has to be done daily. I really need to focus on time management.
It's all good though.


Just before I snapped this of miss C ,she was laying on the floor on her stomach and I turned around to reach for my camera and when I turned back she was up heading for me.
It's just the cutest thing to see her on her belly looking at a book or picking at something off the rug.
I let Chelsea have some ramen noodles for lunch the other day and I believe she had more fun playing with said noodles then eating them.
And before you ask, yes I have blue cupboards. It was from my Trading Spaces phase about 8 years ago and I've been putting off repainting them because I'm hoping to get a kitchen remodel. That will be our last big project for this house. Someday...
The kitchen is definitely a conversation starter.
Back to housework so that I can do some creating later.
The kids will be off the rest of the week and this weekend looks to be crazy, Friday is craft night, Saturday morning is the bike swap meet before El Tour cycling race on the 21st. The cousins are sleeping over Saturday night and then we have meetings after church on Sunday. It looks like Thursday night will be my only free night for the rest of this week.
I better get cracking!

*Carrie*

I have been a very busy mommy. On Saturday I was slightly crazy and decided to finish quilting my first baby quilt. I sewed on the binding and spent the next two hours doing my whipstitching.
Voila! I have completely finished my first baby quilt. Pictured is before binding.
I really liked how it turned out AND I learned a few things.
On to Halloween. The kids definitely scored in the candy department and were throughly wiped out by the end of the night.

We had Kelly as a Princess Fiona (before the Ogre)
Wyatt- Batman, the wings and mask from his birthday and a set of pj's that I found on clearance at Target and the only set period, thankfully in his size.
Chelsea was a little bumble bee.
this costume was purchased when Kelly was around two and that year she got sick and wasn't able to go out so Wyatt was the first to actually wear it out for trick or treating.
Mommy- I went with being a pirate and I loved the hat.

Daddy- well Daddy doesn't really get into the costume stuff like we do. One friend on Facebook said he was going as a nudist on strike.
We all had a great time.

On Monday I started a program that I had heard about from another blogger and saved the link to my computer. this link has been sitting there for about a year when Rob stumbled on it and looked into it. After my most recent breakdown of feeling overwhelmed and not knowing where to start, Rob felt that this might be worth a try.
It's called Motivational Moms and for us whom are hopeless at getting the whole house clean this is for us.
So I bought the 3 month plan to give it a whirl and if I like it I'll buy the whole year plan.
So far I have been following the plan and I am happy with all that I have accomplished so far. Certain chores you do every day and others are "extras" that just help keep the house on the straight and narrow.
Check it out at www.motivatedmoms.com you can see all her samples.
Since I'm starting at the end of the year chores like dusting the first floor haven't popped up yet so that still needs to be done but the kitchen counters and bathrooms look fantastic. Hell even my bedroom is getting back on track.
My problem is to not to get overwhelmed at what isn't done and be happy with what is.
Baby Steps.
Right now this means I spend less time on the computer and crafting but the plan makes time for crafting.
Today I have begun the final stages for completing my second quilt which is for Chelsea. I'm in the process of putting my "sandwhich" together but Chelsea thought it would be better to open all of Daddy's dresser drawers and then mess with my sndwhich. so I put it on hold to come type up a recap and wait for reinforcements to keep the midget occupied so I can get the fabric pinned together.
I'll post a picture when I'm done.
I better go, I need to run the vacuum before the kids get home.
*Carrie*