Happy Birthday, Dave Whitley!

We have two Daves in our family, so sometimes we have to refer to my son-in-law by his complete name. We used to differentiate between the two, calling them Big Dave and Little Dave, but Little Dave grew up, so that no longer works. Big Dave, as noted in Allison's blog, loves to play and can be silly. Hence the above picture. Perhaps not the most flattering picture, but it does illustrate the point. Anyway, he does love a good game and very often wins. He's smart, witty, and fits in great with our family. He's thoughtful and very often, especially when he was living with us, asked me if there was something he could do to help. I really appreciated that. He spent lots of time helping me paint in our last house, getting it ready to sell. He's also a great father, spending lots of time reading to and playing with sweet Emaline. And I also recognize the good relationship he and Allison have. They seem to have a good time together. Talking and not talking. We're glad you're part of the family, Dave W.

Dog For Sale

My pantry usually looks like this:This morning it looked like this: HE was the only one in the kitchen/family room area last night: This is the second time this week. I'll be remembering to keep the pantry door shut. Once David leaves for college, it's anybody's guess how long he'll last around here.

Santa Rosa Revisited - part 2

I just had to post a couple more pictures that KC sent to me that were taken with her iphone. Here we are in front of one of the wineries: We rode around to the back of the winery, ignoring the "Employees Only Beyond this Point" signs (yes, I ride with a bunch of scofflaws!) and saw this beautiful fountain area. A man came rushing over waving his hands and telling us we weren't suppposed to be there, but after apologizing profusely and lamenting that we didn't see the signs, Sandy asked him to take our picture in front of the fountain. He did!

Santa Rosa Revisited

Me, Jana, KC, Sandy, Leslie, Carie, Vicki in our jerseys that Jennifer (not there) designed. Our motto: A Beautiful Mess (has to do with our lives, not our looks!)

Last Friday, some of my bike group decided to go back up to Santa Rosa and try it again. The Saturday before that we had tried to ride the Wine Country Century, but with rain pouring down, we quit after 50 miles. So we got up early, put our bikes on the back of two cars, and left Pleasanton at 6:00 am. It's about an hour and a half drive to Santa Rosa if the traffic is good. We didn't have time to ride the full 100, but decided to ride the part we had missed the week before, which was a 62 mile loop. The day was gorgeous: sunny and warm, but not too warm. It turns out that it's very pretty countryside up there, but when you are riding with your head down trying to keep the rain out of your eyes, you just don't notice it! There are lots of rolling hills and vineyards that stretch for miles. Some of the wineries looked like Italian villas and we could imagine ourselves riding through the Italian countryside. On the way back home, we stopped in a little town that had this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant with the most delicious Italian food. Because of the weather, my impression of the Santa Rosa area had been that it was drab and ordinary. Seeing it in the sunshine with blue skies and noticing the beauty of the green rolling hillsides changed my opinion. Many things in life are colored by our own references or experiences. Sometimes we have to give things a second chance and hope the weather has changed.

Tuxedos

What is it about a man in a tuxedo? I have always loved James Bond in a tuxedo, looking so suave and debonair. I especially loved it when David, age 7, wore a tux at Sarah's wedding. He was adorable.Now, ten years later, he recently attended the Junior Prom, once more decked out in a tux. I can't believe that 10 years have slipped by.For the last week before the Prom, I quizzed David on where they were going to dinner (a friend's house, they're having it catered), where they were going after (another friend's house, his mom is making breakfast and we're going in the hot tub), and how they were getting to the Prom (can I drive even though I haven't had my license for a year?) Um, no. I won't bore you with my points (it's illegal) and his points (it's a stupid law, you're ruining the prom for me). I suggested riding with someone who was legal. I asked how Katie's parents felt about it. Eventually, I talked to Katie's mother on the phone and found out that they were also opposed to it. They'd be happy to drive them, we'd be happy to drive them, her mother had access through work to a car service she could arrange. All suggestions were met with "LAME." (Both her parents are lawyers.) David quizzed me on whether the car service was a minivan. I wasn't sure, but told him I thought it was more like a Lincoln Town Car. "Well, how are we going to fit 6 people in?" "I don't know, maybe it's extra long, like maybe a small limo." Eventually, David realized that we weren't changing our minds about this and on Saturday afternoon (the Prom was that night), Katie's mom arranged to have a driver pick them and two other couples up and drive them from the house where they were having dinner to the Prom, then from the Prom to the after-party, and then home. This car had been booked previously but the parties had canceled at the last minute. Oh, and her mom wanted her home at 1:00 am. Sweet! So, I drove him to Katie's house where we took pictures. Then her mother and I drove them to the house where they were having dinner and took more pictures.When he got home, I asked him how the evening went. First words out of his mouth: THE LIMO WAS AAAAWWWEEESOME!!! One of the couples that they had to pick up were having dinner at a restaurant in downtown Pleasanton, so as they drove slowly down Main Street, they were standing up with the sun roof open reveling (and being obnoxious, I'm sure) in their luxury. I can't believe he spent so much time whining about this. He reminds me of Donovan and the chocolate cake incident!

Training and Raining

I've been riding with my awesome bike group since last September. In January we decided to ride the Wine Country Century in Santa Rosa. We were excited to get signed up. The ride is open to 2500 riders and it sells out in three days. Ten of us signed up for it as well as the woman who started this bike group and who now lives in Utah. Oh, and Mark. Mark and 11 women set to ride. Thanks to my Garmin Forerunner that records every mile I had ridden, I knew that in the last 13 weeks I'd ridden over 1200 miles. It also said I'd burned over 63,000 calories, which poses the question, "Why aren't I as skinny as a rail?" But hey, I'm fit, so I'll settle for that. The Century would put me over 1300 miles. We watched the weather for two weeks and it appeared that there was a possibility of rain. As the time neared, it looked like the possibility was turning to likelihood. Hmmm. Exactly what was my dedication? I've ridden in rain before. It's not fun. You get wetter than you can imagine, you have lakes inside your shoes, you have spatters of grit up your front and your back. As a matter of fact, you have road grit everywhere. And you are cold. Like someone turning on a fan when you are soaking wet and telling you that you have to stand there for an hour or two. It helps a little that you are moving and creating a little body heat. Oh, and it's dangerous. The roads are slick, your brakes are wet, there is a greater chance that someone else will do something that causes you to fall. I also dread a flat tire. It's bad enough to get a flat tire, but changing one in the rain.... We all met in Santa Rosa the night before the ride and had a lovely dinner at an Italian restaurant decorated with cycling jerseys and cycling pictures. There were 12 of us for dinner. Mark and 11 women. He loved that. Rain poured down outside. Rain was forecast for the entire weekend, but maybe it would stop? The dinner was great fun and we agreed that we would check weather.com the next morning to see what it would be like. The next morning at 6:00 am, weather.com said that it was 54 degrees outside and that it would be cloudy until noon and then start raining. Okay, maybe we could get in a good chunk of the ride before it started. We left the starting point at 7:20 am. By 8:30 am it was raining. Then it rained harder. At the first rest stop (mile 25) we re-evaluated. Mark and I decided we'd had enough and said we'd start heading back by a different route, but still nearly 25 more miles. We ran into another friend, Shelley, at the rest stop and she joined us. Some of the bike group said they'd go a little farther and then head back, some were undecided. We had seen many on the side of the road changing flat tires. When we arrived back at the starting point around 11:00 am, having ridden nearly 50 miles in the rain, we were dirty and cold, but surprisingly fresh and not all that tired. It was weird, because we didn't feel like we had really done a bike ride and all because we had fallen short of our goal. I later learned that five women in the group finished the century around 4:00 pm. One of them had a flat tire at mile 85. The other four had never done a century before and were determined to go the distance. Amazingly, one of those four had crashed her bike in her first attempt at a century, broke her ankle, and had had pins in her ankle until February. So hooray for those turbo women! I'm just happy to have lived to ride another day.

Sunshine

Sarah was our first baby and surprised us by being 16 days early. I went home from work on Friday, April 30, 1976 announcing to my office that the next week would be May and I was due in May, (May 19th) so hooray. I didn't realize that would be my last day at work. On Sunday I started having contractions, and on Monday (May 3) morning while heavily in labor, I suggested that Mark call my office and tell them I wouldn't be in today. Sarah arrived at 10:13 am, the sun streaming into the delivery room windows. It seemed a fitting way for her to enter the world as she really has been a ray of sunshine in our lives. As a mother of six children, sometimes her energy and vivaciousness (is that a word?) have made me tired. Like gotobedsoIcanrelax tired. People are always surprised to find out that Sarah is shorter than they think. She has presence. Charisma. People like her. And they remember her. In the hospital I knew she was a redhead before I knew that she was a girl. The nurses made such a big fuss over her each time they brought her to me because of her red hair. (Yes, they used to keep the babies in the nursery, and you stayed 3 days in the hospital!) "Oh, you're the mother of this darling red-haired baby!" they would exclaim. I began to feel sorry for my roommate and her baby. In later years, I was simply "Sarah's mother" instead of having a name. That attention has always been something that has helped shape her as well. Because people don't forget the girl with the red hair. And I'm not talking orange or auburn. RED. You have to see it in the sunlight. Amazing. The hair I always wished I had: straight, but not too straight. Thick, but not too thick. Definite color, not the "started out blonde but what color is it now" hair that I have.While visiting Sarah recently, a woman at church welcomed me, said that I must be *Sarah's mother*, grasped my hand warmly, and told me how much everyone in the ward loved Sarah and that I must be so proud of the woman she has become. Yes. Yes I am. She is my daughter, but also one of my best friends.Happy Birthday, Sweet Baboo! You are my sunshine. But use sunscreen.