Memories...

Let them fill my mind, 

warm my heart, 

and lead me through.

Thanksgiving 2007 was the last time that my dad and I saw each other face to face.  I was very happy to have my whole family at our new house in Socorro.  We shared that holiday with both of my sisters and their families, and also Steven's mom, grandma, and oldest brother Paul.  It was a very cold Thanksgiving, but filled with lots of fun.  We had plenty of activities and projects for the kids to do to keep them entertained and a special project that included the whole family.  We made water rockets and had a competition to see whose would launch the highest.  I remember my dad just keeping in the background, which is usual, watching what everyone was doing...just taking it all in.  I sure do miss him.  He really should be here now.  We are getting ready to go to my mom's in Alamogordo to be together as a family again on Thanksgiving.  It will be hard because one chair will be unoccupied.  Life goes so fast, you never know what it will bring.  Treasure the time you have, make the best of it, and be ever thankful.  Happy Thanksgiving.   

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

The bad news: tomorrow is Monday

The good news: it's only a 2-day week

I just got home from our cross country awards potluck and it went so good.  Almost all of the kids showed up and all brought family along.  There was plenty of food to eat and I think everybody enjoyed the few awards I gave out and especially the movie.  My senior girl's little sister was balling as she is not looking forward to her sister leaving to college.  It really was a good time and although I am losing one very big part of my team to graduation, I will have all but 1 back next year plus everyone else who is going to join as the word is out on how fun and rewarding being part of this team is.  

Besides the potluck, it was a beautiful weekend here in Socorro.  There was little cloud cover and no wind and the sun was shining both days.  Because we have such low humidity, anytime the sun shines it feel nice and warm.  I took advantage of the nice weather and on both days I was able to get in ten mile runs.  I had been doing one 10 mile run on the weekend for the last several, but this was the first that I did one on Saturday and again on Sunday.  I am getting ready for the Tucson half marathon in a couple of weeks so being able to do that and actually feel better and run faster on the second run was a confidence booster.  

This weekend we are traveling to Alamogordo and I hope to increase the distance and get in a couple more quality runs.  

So ends another weekend.  Time is flying and Thanksgiving is around the corner.  I am reluctantly coaching middle school basketball right now and our first game is this Thursday and we have 2 more next week before the break.  Busy busy busy.

I have definitely overextended myself this year and I know it is my last year to coach basketball.  I simply do not enjoy it as much as I did cross country and although track is not my favorite I know it is an opportunity to get kids interested in cross country.  I have created a monster here.

All well and good but nothing beats just coming home, going for a run with Linds before picking Emma up.  

Speaking of running I had a great one today.  Fall is becoming my favorite time of year to run in Socorro and I ran a 10 mile loop today that parallels the bosque and the Rio Grande and it was nice to see the gold leaves and smell that familiar smell of winter.  

Sorry for the absence and I hope I made up for it with 4 posts this weekend.  I hope you all have a great and productive week as you get ready for Thanksgiving and the short work week that comes with it :)

Steven

Lindsey's New Bike 

This is Lindsey's new ride for the upcoming triathlon season. Although she has done several triathlons she has never had her own bike. She used to borrow my training bike but I can understand it's not the most comfortable for some (most) people. So we researched and looked at a million different pictures and here is what we came up with. The frame is a pearl white and these pictures do not do the paint justice. Our goal was to go black with almost every part and then throw just enough pink to make it a "girl" bike. We found pink cables and pink pedals and Lindsey added some decals to make it even more special. I think it is a really cool bike and I know it will stand out in any transition area and she will get plenty of compliements at races. Hopefully it will still look good after all the sweat and training she'll add to it as she gets ready for some local triathlons. Proud of you Linds :)

Here are some pictures of Fall in Socorro. There is a chill in the air but still pretty warm.

This is our video for Cross Country this year. I have been home not feeling well for the last couple of days so I had some time on my hands to make it. We will have a potluck dinner and awards presentation and show the movie on the projector...should be a lot of fun. Hope you like it as you're getting to see it before the team and let me know what you think.

Steven

This year Emma was a witch for Halloween. She absolutely loved preparing for this...we took pictures about two weeks before and she enjoyed all of the Halloween parties that gave her a chance to wear her costume.  She painted her nails black and wore red lipstick. On Halloween, Monique and Levi came to town and they had fun trick-or-treating together!

Fall Break

Here is a great picture that Lindsey had taken on her trip to the East coast.  It is of a stream that is close to her dad's house.  I am surprised how green everything still is.  You can see some of the foliage changing to red but for the most part it is green.  We are currently on a fall break from work that started the day before Halloween and ends today, election day.  For having 5 and a half days off it sure has gone by quick like most breaks do.  

On Friday we had our district championships for cross country.  The meet went well and at the end of the day we had the girls district champion, 3 all-district selections, and 3 state qualifiers.  I had gone into the meet with the expectation that my boys would qualify as a team but they ran a very "off" race.  A couple of the runners mentioned that they felt a little dehydrated or that they had lost fitness during our taper?  One thing was that we ran the race in the afternoon instead of the usual morning and the temperature on Friday was up in the 80's.  I was later thinking to myself that I have only 12 runners on our roster, both boys and girls, and having 3 qualified for state makes 25% of our team.  And to make that number sound even better, we only ran 9 at the district championship, so really that percentage is 33%.  The cherry on top of the sundae is that 100% of my girls' team qualified for state.  Anyway I guess I'm just being silly.  We did great and our season is still not over, something that our volleyball and girls soccer teams cannot say.  Next year I expect our team to grow as we pick up kids from other fall sports, more 8th graders, and the fact that we are only losing one runner to graduation.

Well I need to get going and I need to get off this computer so I can get stuff done.  First on the list is a run, then vote, then air conditioners need to be shut down for the winter, then bathroom updates before Sue gets here.  Thanks to everyone who reads the blog and leaves comments.