the one about my beach cruiser

In an effort to save money I have recently started riding my bike or walking…everywhere! Gas prices are outrageous and I refuse to pay that much money to drive to work when it is less than mile away. Besides, I am also working on saving ME! I have been dieting and exercising and that ride to work every day is only going to help me, right?
So anyway, about my bike… A few years ago I scored my bike for a killer deal! It was donated by a local bike shop and then auctioned off for charity. I bid on it and won! I got a $350 bike for about $100. This spring, my bike needed a little work. The tires were bad and it just needed some maintenance. I had left the house one evening and while I was gone my sweet husband fixed it all up for me! He even put a basket on the front! I have been riding it ever since. I love it! Some days it is a little chilly, so I just bundle up and off I go. My cute little Finny loves to ride with me too.
You know me… I can’t have a bike story without some kind of catastrophe. The first day I rode my bike to work, I was wearing long loose leg pants. I never even thought about the dangers of pant legs vs. bike chains…. until the two items met. My quick little bike ride came to a screeching halt. Literally. I had to stop my bike, pull my pant leg out and fix my chain guard. It bent so badly that the pedal wouldn’t even go around. I had to kick it, bend it and manipulate it to get it all back in running order. Remember the basket? Yes, I had it clear full and when the basket is full, the bike will not stand on its kick stand. It makes the front end heavy, then the handle bars turn, and then it falls. So this was tricky for me to make minor bicycle repairs on a busy street with no hands and only one foot on the ground (one was caught up in the chain, remember?) I got everything all fixed and I took off. The first 3 seconds of my ride were good, until my pants got caught again. So all of those things that I just said about fixing my bike??? Yah. I had to do all of that again. I quickly learned that I needed to roll up my pant leg. Crisis averted. I was off and running again. Nearly every day, I pack my lunch and take it to work. Usually leftovers, sometimes a sandwich or something like it. This particular day I had a slice of Papa Murphy’s de-lite crust pizza. (Chicken, bacon and artichoke. Yum!) I had placed my pizza on a small paper plate and covered it with plastic wrap. I was just getting confident after my little pant leg scare when, simultaneously, I hit a small bump and a little gust of wind blew by. Because of the thin crust pizza, there was not much weight on my plate. So guess what happened next? Yah, I lost my pizza.  Once I finally got to work, I was laughing about all of my silly adventures in the last 5 minutes. I had to tell on myself. I called Brett and we had quite a good laugh about the whole thing. The next day got a little easier, and the next even easier. I have got my pants caught in the chain so many times it is ridiculous. I just forget to roll up my pants or put a rubber band around my ankle until I get that sudden jolt. Then I quickly remember.
This is not the only trouble I have had on my bike over the years. When I first got my bike, I was taking it for a little spin around the neighborhood. My old bike was a mountain bike style and it had hand brakes. This bike is a single speed beach cruiser and to brake, you make the foot pedals go backwards. I was having a really hard time getting used to it! We had some major road construction going on so there was a lot of gravel on the road. I am sure you can predict where this is going. Bike? Gravel? Bad combo. Well I was going over to the Galley’s house and was getting ready to stop and park my bike. I still have no idea exactly what happened, but somehow right as I was stopping, I fell. And my bike fell. Right in the gravel. One of Garrison’s friends was walking out of the house right at that minute and he saw everything. I am sure he wanted to laugh so badly!! Can you blame him? I was laughing hysterically! I am right now just thinking about the whole thing. The kid looked at me for the longest time and finally says, “You all right?” I just laughed. I told him I was fine, got up, brushed myself off and went inside. It was hilarious.
I am not very graceful and I know that when I ride my bike I look like a total idiot. And I am ok with that. I really don’t care. Just look at all of the gas money I am saving. And look at how much healthier I am going to be! So when you see me riding down the street on my big orange bike with the huge basket, just wave! Don’t honk though because you might startle me and that could be disastrous.

the one about our fun 4th of July weekend

We had SUCH a fun 4th of July weekend! It was so nice and relaxing and we got to enjoy some of the best company we know. The Galleys. We usually camp quite a bit in the summer, but we haven't been yet this year. We decided that since the 4th fell on a Friday and most people had a long weekend from work, we would jump on the opportunity. I seriously worked all week getting our camper ready. After it had been winterized last fall, we hadn't even been in it, except when I realized I was out of something and had to steal from the camper! Needless to say, I had a lot of re-stocking to do. Also, Brett had to check and make sure everything wintered well and was still in working order. We are actually having a little trouble with the hot water heater so we will have to get that fixed before our next trip, next week. It's frustrating to have something not work since we just bought our trailer BRAND SPANKING NEW two years ago. It is so nice and new though and we love it so much. It still has that "new trailer smell." Anyway, enough of that. Lets talk about the fun weekend had by us...

We got out of town on Thursday evening. It was a nice drive up the mountain and we were greeted by millions of mosquitoes! Don't worry, we had the OFF Deep Woods spray and we were swimming in it all weekend! I am a little freaked out by West Nile Virus so I spray this stuff on myself and Quayd everyday. Really. Anyway, some of our fellow campers were already there. We set up camp quickly, ate dinner and waited for the rest of the group to arrive. It was starting to get dark and Gleneita hadn't made it yet. We had talked to her so we knew she was ok. Quayd had fallen asleep on my lap and we were just starting to roast some marshmallows when Talia's phone rang. This is what we heard..

"Hi."

"What?!?!?"

"You hit and ELK!?!?!?!?!?!?"

Brett jumped up, grabbed Talia's arm and lead her to the truck and they were gone. We had no details. It was a couple of hours before they got back to camp. We had called a few times and found out that Gleneita did hit an elk and it pretty much totaled her car. Luckily, she was ok. They had to wait for the tow truck and get all of the stuff out of the car before they could get back to camp. She was only a couple of miles away when it happened. It was crazy. We had already planned for her to stay in our trailer with us, so I had her bed all made but she was restless all night. I felt so bad for her! I am sure she was so rattled, but she was trying to be so tough. Anyway, that wasn't a very good start to our weekend, but it got better, I swear!

The next day, the 4th, we decided to go to Flaming Gorge and swim. Marcie has a big water trampoline so they blew it up and the kids were able to play for awhile. Tara was in charge of lunch that day, so she brought sandwich stuff to the lake. It was so yummy! The adults just sat and visited while the kids played in the freezing water. Quayd didn't like swimming in the lake. He said it was too squishy. I don't blame him, I HATE swimming in the lake. I really need to see what I am stepping on. That dirty nastiness is just too much for me! So Quayd pretty much played in the dirt by us. He did go out to the trampoline a couple of times but he made Shae, CJ or Ty carry him.

That night, because we were on the mountain, we missed fireworks. But on the 5th, in Dutch John they do a pretty good fireworks show, so we headed over for that. It was only about a 15 minute drive from our camp. I had bought glow sticks for the kids to play with and Gleneita bought pixie sticks for everyone. The kids had so much fun playing around in the grass waiting for the show.


There was also a band playing so we wandered over with Gary, Tara and Shae and listened to them for awhile.


Before we went to watch the fireworks, we stopped at the store in Dutch John to get a treat. Quayd wasn't with us because he wanted to ride with Drake, so Shae rode with us. We saw a guy that Brett works with and he asked us if Shae was our daughter. I was SHOCKED! I know I look old, but do I look THAT old?!?!? Technically, it could happen I guess, but she is 15!! I am 29!! So we were laughing about it at the fireworks so we decided to take a family picture. Shae is so funny... look at her face in the second picture!
The little stinker!! She is LUCKY to have cool parents like us!!!!

Here we are waiting for the fireworks to start.

CJ, Ty, Amy and Rhonda

Scott, Shala and Dalex

Jason and Alise, they are still newlyweds. Can you tell? ;)

Brett and Quayd

Brett, Mandy, Shae and Talia

US!

Talia and Gleneita

Grandma and Grandpa. Aren't they cute!!!

Talia and Shae

Me and Shae ... Then I was asking Shae why all of the teenage girls pull that weird face in their pictures. She didn't know why, but it sorta looks like this.

Shae pulled it off alot better than I did.

Finally, the fireworks started.


Back at camp that night.... Quayd and his hero CJ at the campfire...
The next morning as were packing up camp, we discovered that Brett ran over Quayd's bike the night before. We knew Quayd would be devastated and we didn't know how to tell him. But after much thought, we decided to approach like any good, honest parent would... The conversation went something like this... ;)

"Hey, Quayd! Guess what?!?!?! We are going to let you pick out a new bike!!!!!"

He said, "COOL! How come?"

"Because dad accidentally ran yours over."

"Oh, that sucks. When are we going to the store??? And can I get one with a kickstand?"

EASY PEASY!

It was such a fun weekend. I love camping, especially with the Galleys. It is always an adventure! I want to finish with this picture... The kids had so much fun "fishing" from the back of Scott's truck. It kept them entertained all weekend. We would take treats out there and they made up games and played the whole time. I am sure the mess in the back of the truck was unbelievable, but at least they had fun! Right?

the one about more melt downs

Remember the story the other day about Quayd's freak out? Well, I have been going through some pictures lately and found another freak out. Well, two actually. (he he he)

#1. This is when we were trying to teach Quayd how to ride a bike without training wheels. He was NOT happy with us that day. This happened the summer before last. We had taken the training wheels off and lost one. Oops. He did not want to ride with no training wheels, so he showed us by not riding his bike for the rest of the summer.
Thank goodness the Easter Bunny brought him a new bike last year with training wheels, and he learned how to ride early last summer.

Meltdown #2 is actually kind of a sad story. Brett, Quayd and I went on vacation to South Dakota in the summer of 2005. It was such a fun trip, but on our last evening there we went to the Alpine Slide overlooking Mt. Rushmore. (In case you don't know, an Alpine Slide is one of those big slides that you ride a little cart down a mountain. You have to take a ski lift to get to it.) Well the whole way up the ski lift, Quayd was saying how he was going to ride down the slide with mom. We got to the top and looked around. There was lots of little tourist things to do. When we finally decided to go back down the mountain, we headed for the slide line. There were 2 lines. One said, "single and experienced riders only," and the other said, "double and less-experienced riders." We were all in the appropriate line. At the last minute, Quayd decided to ride with his Dad. He ran over, hoped on with Brett, I got on my cart on my side and off we went. I sped up and got ahead of them at the very top so I could take pictures. As they were catching up to me, I could hear Quayd crying. I was SO bugged! I thought to myself, "Here we are, doing something so fun, just for him and he is crying!" I was like, "Quit being a baby Quayd!" Seriously, I was MAD! Then with my camera.. Snap Snap...
Errrrrrrr!!! Big bawl baby!

Well, as they passed me, Brett yells at me to quit yelling at Quayd because he was hurt. Oh. Oops. They had wrecked on the first turn and Quayd got a NASTY burn on his hand. It was AWFUL! He still has a heinous scar from it. We ended up taking him to the doctor when we got home and they told us it was a pretty serious burn that will probably require plastic surgery someday. Since he is growing so fast right now, it would be hard, besides it will be very painful. Brett ended up with scars too. It was a pretty crazy wreck. So I guess that was a justified meltdown. The next morning, as we were headed out of town, we stopped at Mt. Rushmore. Quayd had a huge bandage on his hand. So sad! He also had bumps and bruises all over his body.


I don't know why I blogged that on an entry about Quayd's meltdowns. It really just makes me look like a bigger jerk, huh. Sorry Quayd. It was really so sad. He gets all emotional just talking about it, still to this day.

the one about cold spring weather

So it's official. Spring Fever has hit our house, big time! We are all itching to get outside, but it is still just a tad to cold. Janice said it got to 50 today, but 2news said 42 was our high. I don't know.

After work and school, Quayd and I ran to town with my mom and grandma. We had lunch and went to Wal-Mart. Quayd and I wore flip-flops, short sleeves and no jackets. We knew it would be plenty warm, but to our surprise, burr! Then when Brett got home, we decided we would go search for my long lost wedding ring, since the snow is melting at the park. Again, Quayd and I wore flip-flops, short sleeves and no jackets. Still burrr. By the way, no luck. We actually even went to the pawn shop to see if by any chance someone had found it and pawned it. Nope.

Anyway, this is where my story gets very chilly.... tonight, the Galley kids came down to play with Quayd. They went right outside to ride bikes and jump on the trampoline. Brayden and Brennen came over too. I knew they must be freezing, but they didn't care. They played outside for hours! Since the time changed yesterday, it stays light until nearly 7:30. They were loving it, so I ran outside to snap a picture. Look, there is still a ton of snow! That is Brayden and Eli at the top, then Brennen, Quayd and Amelia at the bottom. They are crazy! Check out Brayden's new do, by the way. Thanks Janice! This is just a preview of what our house will be like this summer. We have night games here almost every night! (Watch future blogs for more info.)

I also took picture of the ugly ditch that runs in front our our house. This will be the last time you see it this way because the city is putting in culvert and filling it up. We are so glad! It will be a mess for most of the summer but it will sure be worth it. Last summer, Quayd, Brennen and I were riding our bikes to 7-11 and Quayd lost his balance and rode right into the ditch. It was so scary. He could have and should have been hurt so badly, but he wasn't. It was crazy. Anyway, we are glad to see it leaving! Here are some bad before pictures. I hate this time of year. It is so ugly and brown and dirty. Only a few more weeks until it starts getting pretty. Thank goodness.