heading home

I've been away, here in california, but heading back to the cold tonight on the red-eye. I have many pics and vids to post so hopefully I can get to that soon after I get home. It's been a nice vacation. It started a little cool and wet but it has finished well with lots of sunshine and warmer temps. Chris has been logging some miles and I'm looking forward to getting home and starting skiing, seeing friends and getting this sorry body back in shape.

The girls definitely enjoyed the beach and trinity loved the dogs, especially caro's dog Otto. We thought about bringing him home. but, not good timing, we need a fence in the backyard first. So, she is taking him for a nice long walk today and savouring every moment.

Jade's got more words. She says 'sorry' -at the right times- it's pretty funny. Same with the word 'ow'. She started saying 'give me' the night before we came here but she's pro now. there's many more I can't think of now. The best is with the dogs though. She has learned all of the animal names, nick-the cat, and the two dogs Abe and Otto. She says one of the dog names (and she knows which one is otto and which one is abe). she'll say the name and point to the dog and say 'sit'. So funny.

anyway, more to follow and some visuals too.

Landscaping madness

Remember the back yard and the piles of dirt? They were levelled out and a retaining wall of stone from Severn Bridge (up north - this is canadian shield rock!) put around the perimeter. There's a story behind these rocks too but not as good as the story about the cedar. Oh, lots of tales to be told on the porch next summer...
Ah, grass is good! the cement pad is for a shed. In the spring we'll put a fence up too, drilled directly into the stone perimeter so nosy neighbours can't see in...there's a story there too

The sodders.

When Chris really likes something he goes all out, more rock to border the front walkway. it'll look nice when the stamped concrete gets poured in the spring.

Halloween 2008

Jade loves the wagon, and she stays in it!!

Les Amis, Trinity is the vampire...

My little pumpkin (with elf ears, thank goodness they haven't stayed that way)

Want some??

Porch Progress

Things have progressed and I'm a little behind but here are some shots in chronological order.

Trinity likes the porch too!




Chris loves his cedar ceiling! There's a story behind it, a typical chris story but too long to write here. Let's just say we got a good deal on the wood.

The jamaicans who did the stonework. They were quick, they never took a break!


It is just about finished, just the siding to go up on the side of the roof. but, it's snowing out tonight so I'll have to get a picture later and post it.

She walks, finally

I had a feeling it would come like a breakthrough, seeing as she has been walking while holding only one finger since late june/early july. She finally walked a whole bunch last night when I wasn't home. Luckily, Chris got it on video. She wouldn't do it when I got home but she walked a whole bunch tonight on her own so I think she's good. Notice the wonderful big sister in the video. Trinity rocks! Ignore the messy house please, I haven't had time between work and a muddy renovation. It really bothers me but I need sleep more than I need a neat and tidy house at the moment!

We have a porch!

It's coming along, below is the belly of the future basement. A bathroom and a laundry room. You really have to use your imagination right now. We used AMVIK (an Insulated Concret Form). It's really solid and has a great 'R' factor. It's really strong too and should serve well should we ever need a bunker...

It's not done yet but now we should be able to walk out our front door at least

Life...with an 8yr old

So, this saturday Trinity has been invited to a birthday party where she is to come dressed as her favourite pop/rock star. So, this is who she'll be:

Here she is taking care of her hair

So, she has this costume (which we bought for Hallowe'en) and she decides that she doesn't want to dress as Hannah Montana!! I asked her who she's gonna be because she doesn't have any other rock star get up. The only other choice may be Jimi Hendrix if we go to the party store and get a big afro wig. Anyway, she has also told me she doesn't want to be Hannah anymore for Hallowe'en, she wants to be a skeleton...grrrr

Jadie's B-Day

Okay, just a little over two months late but here are some pics of jade's party. Her birthday was actually on the same day as the Altoona crit so her party was a week later I think...it was a while ago, I have no memory for stuff like that.
Here she is thoughtfully reading one of her cards...


At first she didn't know what to do with the cake, it felt weird...


She eventually got the idea, even if her aim was a little off...

cement goes in...

We have walls

These walls went together like lego, it was pretty cool, especially for a lego fan like me! When it's it's all finished they will have some crazy R factor for insulation, and it's considered a 'green' addition because they make them in Toronto and they are made of 60% recycled plastic.

BIG Mess!

So, just a few photos of what's been happening at our house lately...
Check out the beautiful new Hardie board siding on the front dormer!



Watch that first step, it's a doozy!


Footings

SLACKER!!!

man, I am a slacker...but not really. I got a job...I need sleep. I'm tired and have no life at the moment, teaching french in the afternoons to grade 4-5 and gym/library/IT in the mornings to JK-3. At this point I'm trying to learn every kid's name in the school (just over 200 kids, it's a JK-Grade5 school) because I have them all at some point in the week. I go to bed late and get up early, welcome to the working world eh? Bike? I can't even remember what colour mine is but I do remember it's a FUJI. Life was good as a bike racer but it's time to move on. I have sooo many pictures and movie clips to post it isn't even funny, I'm so far behind. Trinity and Jade are just growing too fast. Trinity was invited to try out for rep soccer for 2009, pretty exciting in our world. We'll find out in mid-october if she's selected. Jade is almost 14 months old and can climb in and out of the living room chairs and couch and climb up the stairs but she will not walk by herself. She needs to hold a finger. She appears to maybe be a lefty as she will only walk holding a finger with her right hand so that her left hand is free to manipulate toys and things. Even the doctor noticed how she favours the left hand. Lefties are cool (my dad was one) because they use more of their brain than right handed people (even if they have a shorter life span due to accidents (it's a right hand world people). Here's the latest video of jade rocking it with her hannah montana 3-D glasses firmly planted. she loves to dance!



More to come later when I don't have the gym/library/IT, certainly by mid-october.

Cheerios!!!

Cheerios, pretty big in our house right now. They make a big mess too cause jade is not super good with getting them in her mouth all the time. She even flicks them!!



Then, of course it's even fun for a very creative big sister, check it out!

Nouveau Art

This is what Trinity's been up to during her school lunch. It's called APPLE ART. What's even more amazing is I didn't put those apples in her lunch. So, somewhere there's a mom delighted that their child ate their apple at school that day...

Trin's vid

Here's Trinity's video,she'll probably be a mouse in the nutcracker, a good mouse too!

Missing my girls

I've been away from home for 9 days now and I'm missing the girls. Jade has cut her "apple biters" up top so soon she won't look like sponge bob with just the two teeth on the bottom. She's also almost walking on her own. I gave instructions for her to be confined to the high chair until I get home on monday. Trinity's been dancing up a storm gearing up for her recital next week. There's a lot of extra practices.

As far as the bike racing is concerned, I'm in Philly right now for the Liberty Classic tomorrow. I really do like this race and it's going to be scorching hot which I also love! I'm so excited after being in montreal for those races and getting rained on so much. The world cup it just poured buckets, so much fun...anyway, the day after the world cup I was confined to bed, except to run to the bathroom, had it coming out both ends. That day is a blur. I really slept most of it, thanks to Gravol, and some Advil too. Then of course I had to race the next day but thankfully the race didn't start until 5:30pm. I was feeling weak in the morning but by race time I was better and I survived. It did rain on us again though. And it was wet the next day, it stopped raining as we were on the line. I am so tired of being wet and cold and dirty. So, I am really looking forward to tomorrow's race in the wonderful heat. Bring it on!

So I'll sign off with some video of Jade. I tried 3 times to upload one of Trinity but it keeps failing so she'll get her own post!

Congratulations Trinity!!

Hey ballerina!!

If you read the blog regularly you might remember that I wished Trinity good luck at the Nutcracker auditions while I was in europe. Her Baba took her but she told her dad she didn't expect to make it. She auditioned last year and wasn't selected so I think that was in her mind.
You should have seen her face when I told her after school last week that she had been selected to participate!! It was a look of shock. Her BFF from ballet, Madeline, was also selected. So, it will be a busy fall for us with practices every weekend and she's not allowed to miss any of them. So, that should be fun and a good experience for her. Although, she should probably just be a cyclist instead of a dancer, take a look at those quads and tell me different!

She's already close to dropping her dad on a bike!! ha ha

Way to go Gwennie!!

I received a text/picture message the other day and I have to say, I'm very proud of my little love bug, Gwennie!! Way to go girl sitting up like this all by yourself!Click on Candice's blog on the right there and you can see some more cute pics of the lil smessy, plus an update on all the cycling babies.

Back Home

Well, I came home early from the europe trip and it was a good decision. I made that decison for a few reasons but as it turns out it was good call for another reason. One of my babysitters (ya, one of two, you read that right, see it takes two to replace me!! ha ha makes it sound like I manage a lot eh?) my mother-in-law, Nadia, came down with a kidney infection and could only lay in bed for quite a while. very painful condition. So, my mom would have had to go it alone in the morning getting trinity off to school and taking care of jade's needs too. It can be kind of hectic, I've got a system. well, honestly, i don't really have a "system"...I just get up pretty early before the kids do so I can get stuff done. At any rate, the weather was sucking big time in Belgium (I got snowed on the day before I came home). And while the weather was sucking in europe it was fantastic here at home. It has been better for my fitness that I came home.So, the sunday after I came home was the famous (here at least) Paris to Ancaster race. It's an enduro type race that is best done on a cross bike but I've only ever done it on a mtb bike (seeing as I don't own a cross bike). There are a lot of gravel/fire type roads, rail trail and single track and a couple of mud slides. It was a blast. Brian Chewter down at Central Cycle in Hamilton lent me a cross bike. Yes, that was very nice, to lend me a bike because it was a nice Marinoni and it was FAST. Here's a picture of me crossing the finish lineEven though it was really great weather and the course was as dry as I've ever seen it, the bike was really muddy. But, chris cleaned it up really well and it's now back at home at Central Cycle along with the women's race winner's jersey. My average HR for that race was 168bpm which for me is pretty dang high. I had a blast and I'm thinking about adding a cross bike to my bike collection (like I need another bike).

Ketchup #4

So, after Visalia, which is not worth reporting about, we headed up to the big trees in Sequoia National Park. Chris decided to ride in that direction and we met him up at the top of Rocky Hill. we stopped in Exeter for bit on the way. Here's the three of us waiting for Chris to ride by.
Then I let Jadie have a go at the steering wheel
Looks like she liked it, maybe she'll be a driver someday too
So, we were on our way, here's a pic of Chris on the way up. Trinity didn't want to stop cause the edge of the road just fell away to below. She was relieved when we continued driving.
The trees were amazing, here's the three of us girls hanging near a giant tree
Here's Chris and Trinity in front of the tree we mistakenly thought was the biggest on the planet, the General Sherman, but we were wrong
Here's Trinity near another big one but it's still not the General. This one looks almost as big as our house, but not quite
Okay, this is the General Sherman. It's massive! You can just see Trinity and I (with jade in the carrier). Trinity is being a tree hugger...
On the way down we stopped at tunnel rock for a photo op. The road used to go through here. Nowadays there are vehicles that wouldn't fit under there so the road has been re-routed around. I don't understand why any large vehicle that wouldn't fit under there has any business going up that mountain!
We had a lot of fun that day. I was cold for most of it as you can see there was plenty of snow up there. I only had my KEEN sandals too. I got cold feet. Trinity loved it of course being only 8 yrs old and crazy.
From there we headed back to Escondido for a few more days of glorious weather and rides. Then it was Easter and time to head back to the great white north. That's about it for ketchups.

Race Update

So, did a race yesterday in Holland, it was crazy as only a race in Holland can be. I felt much better and the form is coming, even if I didn't finish. I wasn't having fun all the time but there were sections, like this one
fun fun
Really, I quite enjoyed that section because I actually passed some people!! I rode along the side a lot but I did ride the them too when I had to go around someone. Still ended up at least 4th group back but we caught back on to the main field about 2km from the hill.
We had some rain and a lot of wet roads and bricks. Anyway, that's over. Now we are in Belgium and it's wet, surprise!! Maybe it'll stop someday.

Back to the present

Okay, before I continue with the ketchups, I'm going to post about the here and now. I am in Holland with the national team. Here is a picture of us before pre-riding today's world cup (courtesy of Leigh Hobson's Picasa site ).Umm, I think we're lost again...where's Vincent?Okay, so the roads aren't too wide here, just a little wider than Gina and I are tall If you'd like to look at some more of Leigh photos you can access them here
Leigh's Pics

So, I have to say, Holland is very nice and clean. We actually saw a women dusting the "outside" of her house!! We were all like "wow, I've never seen that before". So, the tulips aren't out yet, it's still too cold but everybody's yard and house are pristine. But, I'll tell you, the air quality ain't so hot. Most of the time it smells like poop (there are other 4 letter words I could use but this is a family friendly blog). Yesterday while riding, a farmer was spraying his field with mist of poop, I swear. It smelled so bad. Today the air just had a general 'eau de poop'. I've figured it out though. See, there are all these horses here, especially a lot with those short little legs (like in that picture for Trinity two posts below). We were wondering why they have them. Surely you don't ride them and it's not like they need them for work horses. Today it clicked. They keep them for the poop! Here's some of those poopers hereI'm so glad I figured that out! I should sleep tonight. BTW, I didn't race today but I am racing tomorrow. It's on some of the same parts as today's race but no landfill hill and hopefully, no Paris-Roubaix type cobbles either (they had about 8km of that today).

ketchup #3

So, I left Ashville for sunny california, and it didn't disappoint. The weather was so warm, it felt great and of course, in this warmth, I felt like a superstar again on the bike. Perhaps I was mistaken but I was delirious in all that heat.

The first thing we did after I got out of the airport was hit the beach (Trinity's favourite thing about california).
Of course, she went shell hunting. Did you know you are not allowed to remove these types of things from the beach?? Trinity's only 8 yrs old and already 'breaking the law'!
Then, of course, we had to hit the local brewer, Pizza Port. Does it get any better than good pizza in a micro brewery?? and I don't even like beer!! Although, it appears my oldest daughter might!

Jadie, double fisting the pizza crust, go big girl!!

Then, back at Ricky's and Maria's, Jade goes all Harry Potter on me!
Later, Chris was doing some bike work and looking for tools or something (Ricky doesn't have any, well, he does now because Chris bought him some). So, instead of tools he found some freeloading lizard living in a bin in Ricky's garage!! We kicked him out real fast.

Here's our gracious hosts, Ricky, Maria Isabel and the boy, Paul

We had a ton of fun but it wasn't over yet. We travelled up to Visalia for a less than stellar race from me but the day after we went to the 'big trees'. That was cool but that is ketchup#4