WWE Wrestling

This was the highlight of the summer for the boys - more pics to come later - my cell phone (where the pics are) died a few minutes ago in the middle of uploading - I think I have 55 total pics from last night. Anyway, it was a good time - something for them to remember the summer by.

Picnic in the Park

I was lucky enough to have today off. Cassy went to Band Camp and the boys and I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then jumped on our bikes. We rode to their school where I had to drop off some additional paperwork. We then rode to the middle school where the high school band is having their camp, they enjoyed watching Cassy and the other kids practicing. We stayed for about 30 minutes before jumping back on the bikes and riding over to the new playground at Hopkin's Park. They played on the playground and we also played catch with the baseball - Gaven is getting a pretty good arm on him! The whole thing didn't last too long before they decided they wanted to eat - so we hopped back on the bikes, rode the bike trail to the gas station and picked up a drink and a bag of chips then rode the trail to Annie's Woods where we sat down and ate lunch. They played on the playground there for a while and then we rode home. It was a fun time.

Anyway - that was my day - I cleaned a little before the kids got up this morning and then after we came back home I picked up a bit more but other than that I've just sat around enjoying the day with the boys.

Ride Safe!

Watching the sun rise during the commute....

Took this picture this morning as I was heading into work. It was a little chilly this morning and you can see the fog lingering over the open field on the left and over the Kishwaukee River on the right and the sun rising on the horizon...it was a very nice ride in. I stopped at the Road Ranger to get a cappacino. The reason I wanted the cappacino is because Cassy and I stayed up till 2 a.m. watching Dirty Dancing. Fun times.

Happy to be home - worked from about 6 a.m. till 7:30 p.m. I need a vacation! On a fun note - during the ride home I came off the bike path to find some guy up ahead of me (about a half mile - maybe a little more) so I hit the climb on 1st street hard and caught him at the corner of Hillcrest and 1st. He was behind me on the bikepath through NIU but overtook me on that hill on Lucinda...but that was okay - because I had already caught him so I didn't need to prove to myself that I could do it again .

Safe Riding !

My commute to work ---- In pictures

Following last nights severe storms that went through the area -


This is what I found on my way to work today....downed trees across the bike path and across some of the roads. The overturned Port-o-potty (my favorite) and the misplaced trash recepticle.

Wake up Call

This morning my alarm was set to go off at 4:45 a.m. I had turned on the alarm on my cell phone as well considering we had already lost power earlier in the evening due to the bad storms and I figured better safe than sorry. So, my cell phone alarm starts going off - or so I thought - when I picked up the phone to turn it off I realized my baby brother was calling.

Apparently his minivan was broken into sometime last night/early this morning. The person who broke in shattered his drivers side window and then reached in and unlocked the doors. Upon climbing into or out of the minivan though they left a whole hand print - palm and all 5 fingers in two spots on the inside window. They apparently knew what they wanted because the only thing missing was the dvd player my brother has in there to entertain his daughters on trips.They left the $40.00 headphones, the CD's (he has alot of those) and other things that would be worth some money.

He just cleaned out the minivan on Sunday because my sis-in-law (to be) and his daughters are in Florida visiting her family so he thought it would be a good time to get all the grimy fingerprints my oldest niece leaves on the windows cleaned up.
Lucky for him I guess since they should be able to get the prints and nab who ever did this.

Anyway, that's about it. I'm going to go ahead and head into work - nothing better to do at this point and I am now wide awake. Bob is still lying in bed - but should be moving any minute now!

Ride safe - I hear there is still some lightening - may avoid the bike trail as I'd be under the trees for quite a little bit!

Oh Happy Day Part 2

Just got back from the bike ride - it was so very gorgeous out! A perfect day for a bike ride - all days on a bike should be as ideal as today was. 37.61 miles on the bike - averaging 15.32 mph - which is a good speed for me - I'm happy with that speed - we were a bit slower on the way in because of the headwind - we got home in under an hour so we were moving pretty good. Average cadence for the ride was 80 which I believe is right at the bottom of the range you should be in. Max speed was 24.21 (nothing beats a good tailwind). It was just Karen and I - the Saturday ride through the bike shop isn't getting many people - although we've had John sometimes and Mary.

All in all it was a wonderful day on the bike! I'm thinking maybe later Cassy and I can get a short ride in - we'll see. I know Bob won't ride because he will be too tired :(

Ride safe!

Oh Happy Day

It's a happy day for a reason - I swear. This morning as I realize that I forgot to throw my biking shorts (yes I have one pair that I always wear) into the washer yesterday evening I thought to myself that I should try on that pair of biking shorts/mountain bike baggy shorts that I bought last year from Nashbar which were too small...I've lost some weight. I tried them maybe three weeks ago and they were still just a smidge too tight - so I yanked em on - without having to wiggle and squirm to get them over my large thighs and hips...HURRAY! Guess I'm wearing them today on the Kirkland Breakfast Ride.

I can't believe it's already August! YIKES! Where did all that free time go? Darnit! It's a little disturbing that school will be starting in 3 weeks! Poor kids!

Tomorrow there is a bike race in Elgin - Bob let me know - we are considering driving out there - just depends on how we are in the morning I guess.

My budget is shot to hell this month already. Bob got up to head to work the other day and found that the two front tires on the suburban were flat! He of course put air in both and left - he c alled me when he got to work and told me that he needed to replace both tires - so there went a couple hundred bucks from my paycheck - bam! A couple hundred bucks I hadn't expected to be spending! When he took it in they found a few roofing nails in the tires. Nice! The tires needed to be replaced anyway - but, I thought I had more time and was hoping to wait until the beginning of September before replacing them...so I'm a little stressed over the money situation - trying to figure out if I can manage a second job or not...honestly I'm not sure how I can fit it in. I just need to make more money where I do work!

My check in a week and a half should be decent -but then I'll be getting school supplies and paying bills - so it will be gone pretty quickly lol! ugh! Wishing the economy would start looking better - the high gas prices and grocery prices are killing us (by us I mean most everyone).

Ah well - what are we going to do - other than complain about it!

Well, another happy note - R.C.I.C. starts in another month - I'm trying to get all my stuff together for it - It looks like my class will consist of mainly teenagers - which is a better fit for me because I'm really better with dealing with teenagers!

Okay, I'm heading out - gotta go over my bike quick before riding out today- need to make it to Kirkland for those yummy blueberry pancakes without any problems! Take care!

Ride safe!