I think I'll get back into blogging...

There's something about actually saying something to people, not just updating your status and posting pictures with explanations rather than captions. Facebook got me there for a time, and still will since I'm addicted, but I think it's time to get back into sharing what's really happening here in Colorado.

Eric and I ran the half marathon and had a great time. I was afraid that my prodding Eric to run 13.1 miles was going to turn him off to yet another one of my interests. Some of you may recall that I took Eric to hike a fourteener while we were dating-the first time- because I am very passionate about hiking and wanted to share that with him. After we hiked Mt. Belford (aka "Holy Helford")we only lasted another 7 days. Just check out his face...

Ah, 2005...He has yet to do another fourteener with me.

Back in September, when running 13.1 miles was inspiring and far enough away to seem like a great idea, we signed up to run the race under 2 hours. Training didn't go quite as planned, with life getting in the way and two weeks prior to the race I was pretty sick. You start the race according to predicted finish time, so we were in wave 8 out of 33...yikes! Race morning was rather warm and sunny. We were advised by the race coordinators not to push for personal best times and to be sure to drink enough fluids. I had already run the race two years ago so opted to run with a good friend who had a plan to run/walk the course and joined her back in wave 25. Eric still wanted to try to finish in under 2 hours and as he took off all I could think of was his bad experience with fourteeners and that we'd never do this again. I had a blast running with my friend and chatting for the first 10 miles but in the back of my mind I was hoping Eric was also enjoying the bands each mile and the feeling of running with 30,000 other people. I felt great and my friend encouraged me to go ahead for the last 3 miles so I took off for the finish and came in strong. I knew Eric finished way before me, having started about 40 minutes before my wave, and as I walked to find him I saw people fainting, staggering to the medical tents, and being carted off on stretchers. It was sobering. We found out later that a 26 year old guy died after finishing the half marathon in 2:15. I was thankful I felt so great and worried Eric had pushed himself too hard...but when I found him he was smiling and told me he had run the course in 2:06. Not great but respectable considering the heat and hills. Even better was that he asked me if we were going to do it again next year!

We were pitiful that evening but managed to spend time with family. Eric's family came for the event(they live in Huntsville and North Georgia) and we were staying with my family. My nieces love it when we are there and we watched Sam run the kids marathon the night before. Here are some great shots of her.

At the starting line

Good start

Strong finish


Alyssa loves Uncle Eric!



We also watched Sam play volleyball. We were about 6 hours post race and Eric's face says it all.


We had a great time and I think we'll end up going to Nashville again next April. Here's to blogging again.

We are alive...

Eric and I are still alive. We have been busy though, training for a half-marathon, working, I'm taking a 3 hour graduate class, our dogs are crazy... the list goes on and on. I can't access the blog on my phone so I keep up with people on Facebook, since there is an application for my phone. SO- go to facebook.com and sign up for a FREE Facebook account. You get to choose who can see your information and it is a lot of fun! Plus you'll get to see status updates (usually made daily) of what your friends are doing. Check it out!
Mom, even Amy is on Facebook :-)

A Crazy Trip to Nashville

Eric and I took a road trip to Nashville for Christmas this year. We thought it would be a wonderful time, since we could take the dogs and not have to worry about leaving them with anyone or boarding them. So we took off on our adventure...
We stopped in Kansas City at a world famous barbecue stop, Arthur Bryant's. It was much needed after 9 hours in the car, with temperatures outside hovering right above 0, with 30-50 mph winds. Brrrr! Everytime we tried to fill up the tank or take the dogs for a jog we immediately came back to the car because it was unbearable outside.

That night we made it to somewhere in Missouri, and when we got to the hotel the dogs must not have been in the best of spirits because they got into a fight. They have fought before and Eric body slams them to break them apart. It isn't pretty and we started wondering how we were going to manage them on this long trip. We divided the room and went to bed thinking all would be fine in the morning.
The next morning we loaded up the car and put the dogs in the back of the car and as we started to pull out the dogs started fighting again. This time it was harder to pull them apart, and Eric got a nasty bite on his hand. We realized we had to keep the dogs apart for the rest of the trip. We also bought muzzles to keep everyone safe and blood free. Cache was not in the Christmas spirit...

We stayed with my sister and thankfully she loves dogs, even ones with issues. Their basset, Molly, is quite a handful too so our dogs fit in. Unfortunately, Audrey went after Cache that night, even though Cache was muzzled...so we got another muzzle for Audrey.
Christmas was fun. Eric is "the world's greatest uncle" because he takes Sam to get cookies and they eat junk food. Here they are at the mall eating cookie slices.

I don't have many more pictures due to all the drama surrounding the dog issues and Alyssa was not feeling well. But I did snap this photo of Christmas morning. Messy wrapping paper drives Dave crazy!

We went down to Alabama to see Eric's family and had a wonderful time, but had to head back to Colorado. The dogs were ok on the way back, but once we got home they got into a few more tussles. We have decided to keep the dogs muzzled when they are together in the house, and to run them as much as possible. Most dog problems are from not giving dogs enough exercise. Many people have told us that we need to get rid of one or both of them, either by putting them down or finding new homes for them. However, Eric and I firmly believe that when dogs have behavioral issues, it is the human's issue-not the dog's. Sure, the dogs have baggage from other humans (both our dogs had previous owners) but if you implement the correct methods the dogs can adjust and the unwanted behavior will cease. We knew something we were doing or not doing was triggering the aggression so we've decided to take some classes to learn methods to help Audrey and Cache to get along.
We'll let you know how it all turns out.

Thanksgiving

For all of you who need to know more of what we are all up to out here in Colorado, you should join Facebook. Seriously, check it out! There are many pictures posted and even a video of Eric and Blayne plucking their nose hairs with their fingers.
This Thanksgiving was a fun one, with lots of food and friends. Eric and I ran the Turkey Trot in our goal times and then he started grilling the turkey. We went over to the Chastains and sat around on computers and watched football. A nice relaxing holiday!

Beer & Biofuels!

Colorado has a great selection of breweries- there's Crabtree here in Greeley, and then the more well known Anheuser-Busch and Coors, and that means CO2. Good old carbon dioxide. We love it in soda, use it as dry ice, need it to brew beer, but read about it these days with conflicting feelings. Isn't it what's accumulating in the atmosphere and reaching concentrations of over 380 parts per million, which is causing climate change? Yep.

I love beer and also love the idea that excess carbon dioxide from brewing beer could be a way to feed CO2 loving algae. Why algae? There's a company right here in Colorado that is using the excess CO2 from breweries and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)-a wast from industry- to grow algae because that's what they use to grow! Some algae photosynthesize and produce copious amounts of oil. They are really efficient at this and don't take any land from food crops, such as corn and soybeans, because they can be grown in small places within labs. No worries about soils being used or having shortages of food crops for this oil which is a great biofuel. Even better the carbohydrates that are waste products can be used to make ethanol or animal feed. If you are a nerd like me, check out SOLIX and read more. Now, if we can just convince scientists to figure out a way to use Kudzu as biofuel...you'd see southerners hacking away at those vines night and day!

Interesting Facts

I had a great week teaching. If you've ever taught you know that the occasional great day, the kind where kids listen, interact, come up with new ideas, ask amazing questions, and they THINK.. is something to celebrate, so an entire week is quite a memorable experience. I speculate the reason for the students response this week has been my enthusiasm. I'm teaching 7th graders about energy resources (renewable and nonrenewable, CO2 footprints) and 6th graders about the circulatory system. If you know me you know I LOVE those subjects and know a lot about them.

What I did to prepare for my lessons was read, read more, and then read even more. I read their textbooks, got online, and then went to the library and started reading magazines and newspapers on the content I was teaching. I ran across an article in Scientific American and got hooked on the entire magazine. I figure if there isn't anything exciting happening around here I'll just post facts from what I'm reading that you might find interesting and might get YOU thinking like my students :-) So here goes.

This is a seed vault in Norway, specifically on the Svalbard islands, where scientists store seeds of crops and other plants. As I was reading I thought of how we all have these million gigabyte computers and external hard drives to "backup" our precious information. So if you think it's crazy for a government to spend $9 million on a seed vault deep within permafrost to protect & backup the genetic diversity of plants, think about how you feel about your digital pictures and documents. Losing those is nothing to losing the genetic diversity that exists on earth. The vaults purpose is to ensure the survival of crop diversity in the event of plant epidemics, nuclear war, natural disasters, as well as climate change, and to offer the world a chance to restart growth of food crops that may get wiped out. This is a real possibility, considering the evidence for climate change (no matter what you think, climate is changing, and it doesn't matter if you think it's human caused or a natural cycle, either way there will be consequences). In fact, there are other seed vaults-1,400 around the world-so someone has already put a lot of thought into this. Climate change will affect crops, among other things, and that means food on your plate. Scientists don't have the doomsday mindset like you may think. They are trying to find solutions to problems, just like scientists have always done. Now, if we could just get politicians to look at data, listen to scientists, and then think- just like my students did this week. Something to ponder...

Pumpkins, Fall, and Happenings around Here...

Last weekend Deborah called to ask if I would like to go get pumpkins with them, so off we went to Eaton. The pumpkins were as big as Erin! We had a lot of fun, though Deborah isn't doing so great, getting dizzy and tired in her first trimester.




I went biking that same weekend, with Sarah, while Eric and Mark took care of baby Lily. Sarah is amazing-Lily is 6 weeks old and this was the first major exercise Sarah has done in months and she made it from Drake to the top of the mountains up the road through Glenhaven. For those of you who have driven that route, you know the feat that trek is on a bike-even without having given birth in the last two months.


My dad was out last week, hunting elk on the western slope. He did fill his tag and on the way back home he dropped by and gave Eric some elk tenderloin and burger. Eric was very happy and said it was "like wrapping Christmas presents" as he cut and wrapped the elk in freezer paper. We are thinking about getting a tag next year and trying our hand at hunting.


We love fall, and I especially like our maple trees when they turn brilliant red.