Frenzy

I know this title is misleading, but that is exactly the scene at the Pogue household every morning now that school has started and all 4 little Pogues are off to school each morning! Without fail the house is filled with the smell of burning toast, and/or eggos and the chaos of chasing down a matching pair of socks, which I admit is a tough task in our home. (I hate folding the socks!)

And so it is, each morning, I have a few hours of "me" time which translates into straighten the house time, fold laundry time and admittedly ride my bike time!:) It feels strange to be able to jump in the shower and have no one come to talk to you or tattle to you while you are trying to shave your legs! I'm sure that I will get used to this new routine, but I miss the chaos of summer a little bit and I surely miss my baby, who is off at Kindergarten all morning! Love that little guy!

I give you.......First day (OK, these were taken within the first week, does that count?) of school 2009 at the Pogues.

(check out the feet on those girls!!!)

Obviously, it went downhill fast, but the photo shoot is always a fun one!

DINNER ANYONE???

REWARD:

We are looking for information leading to the capture and conviction of the culprits in the following crimes:

exhibit A

exhibit B

exhibit C (strewn about the yard and porch)

exhibit D (strategically placed on the front porch)

While we give the perps props for ingenuity and perfect execution........you shall pay for your blasphemous crimes!!!!

ANY information leading to successfully identifying the culprits will be rewarded with dinner .......with us of course. (tiburon anyone? Tsunami?)

Thanks in advance for your help!

GO UTES!!!!

Item # 3

I have a little list in my mind. It is constantly changing, but contains numerous challenges I want to check off as I near the age of 40 (or higher). I love a good challenge, I love the feeling of accomplishment and I love being able to say "done", check it off the list.

Back in January, Jamie and I committed to participating in item #3, the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike race in August. With it being a long way off, I knew I had oodles of time to prepare and equally as much time to back out! I ultimately choose the former and drove to Leadville, CO last week for the big day!

Downtown Leadville with the historic Delware Hotel in the background

Beautiful Day (in the end!)

ahhhhh Leadville! Funny little, quaint old mining town. I don't know what it is like year round, but on this weekend, it is teeming with bikers or all sorts all looking for a belt buckle by the end of the weekend. We begin the weekend with a "racers meeting" which is a big pep rally. "you are stronger than you think you are, you can do more than you think you can"...."I will commit, I will NOT quit" (yes we were chanting this as we packed into the gym from 1920 with no AC). My favorite take home from the pep rally was this quote: "This race will hurt for 12 hours......if you quit, it will hurt a lot longer". So let it be done.....I commit, I will not quit!

So, the rest of the Friday is filled with a short ride and lots of race advice from the more experienced riders that seemed to make me more nervous, although, I appreciated it all. Special thanks to BK, Sam and Dug for essentially giving me a play by play of what to expect and where and how bad it was going to hurt!:) Check out their links for great recaps from a fast rider's perspective and a heartwarming story about Leadville from Dug. Since returning home, I have loved reading their accounts.

Saturday was race day and what a day it was. It started cold and rainy and...did I mention, COLD! No one but the racers got to see the most beautiful rainbow as we rounded the corner to the first patch of dirt. It was spectacular!!! I knew at point, I would have some fun today. Emphasis on the word 'some'.

Without giving a boring play by play, there were a few key points of the day that kept me going.I shall make a list:

1) seeing my awesome girlfriends at the Twin Lakes feed zone

2)seeing Jamie descend Columbine while I was doing the hike a bike o plenty!

3)the sun finally coming out

4) the hundreds of spectators that , even though they don't know me, seemed completely stoked to see a woman out there and cheered for "913" !

5) Gina talking me off the ledge at the last rest stop.

6) Jamie waiting for me at the finish line.

7) Knowing I was riding in honor of Susan, Elden's wife, who recently passed away.

FIGHT LIKE SUSAN!!!

Ten hours is a long time to be riding essentially alone with your ipod and your internal chatter. "i commit, i will not quit"......In the end ...here a a few things I know for sure. (Time for another list):

-That was really hard! ( to quote JJ)

- I am slightly crazy

-I love my friends for supporting me in this

-I love Jamie ..no explanation needed here

-gu+power bar+ gu + power bar+gu +power bar+gu= one upset stomach

Not for a minute did I doubt Jamie's ability to finish this thing, but I was very afraid of being stuck on item #3 for another year!:) All in all, it was a great time. Thanks to the boys for always letting me tag along. Jamie and I both got a really cool belt buckle out of the deal (wink, wink) and a great story to tell.

Enjoy the pictures!

da boys after their finish

the girls in the pit....thanks friends!

most of the mud washed off of me in the second rainstorm, but here is evidence that it was just shy of miserable!

Who's having a great time?

most beautiful sight of the day.....the finish line!

mischief makers

I love my kids! They make me laugh, they make me cry, they drive me absolutely insane!!!

My favorite times are when the TV is off and they are eerily quiet making mischief somewhere in the house. Sometimes, the outcome is ....well....not so good!

Sometimes, the outcome reminds me why I love them so much it hurts!

lake powell 2009

It's the most wonderful time of the year.....

LAKE POWELL TIME!!!

This year was met with not quite perfect weather, but equally as much fun!

time to exhale!

Monkey Boy

Monkey Boy and Daddy(check out the Father's Day Sticker....he wore it all day!)

the view is always so spectacular!!! I love this place!

I also love exhausted children!

I don't love it when I flip kids so hard off a tube, I have to sign a contract to engage them in the fun again! oops....sorry girls! I love you!

I also love this guy!

And these guys!!!

And these girls!

So much fun, so little time to tell all the tales!

Enjoy!

Loser blogger!

Alas, another prolonged hiatus from blogging. Instead of rambling about this and that, thoses things that have had us running at a crazy pace for the past few months, I will share a montage of photos representative of our whirlwind spring

Crazy Hair and Accessory Day at school

JOGAPALOOZA (our fundraiser at school)

Noah graduates from preschool.....yes....already!!!

Kendall and Jez perform Adams Family ...again!:)

Kendall turns 9!

Pman is so Pogue! Go speed racer!

Go Mommy!

Zuzu and her brother Gus Gus

Parker and Noah playing Abe the space monkey and the night guard!!

Pman and Daddy pre-race

Sierra takes up Lacrosse

The Good Parent

I

It has been exactly two months since my last post, mostly because I have not come up for air in what seems like forever! This blog begins to weigh on me, I open it, look at it, remind Jamie that he too is a contributor and can post and proceed to close it and leave it for another day! So here I am finally giving an update.

First, Zuzu is truly the 6 million dollar dog! She has healed wonderfully and you would never know about her injury. Yeah! AND, we are still pretty darn crazy about her.....although I am not entirely crazy about her chosen poop spot in my dining room! I suppose that makes it predictable and easy to locate, so all in all, minimal complaints! :)

As for our frantic pace of life, let's just say it is SPRING! At long last, I believe it is here! With spring's arrival comes soccer, baseball, dance competitions, lacrosse, and bike races! A few weeks ago, I decided on an whim (8 hours before) to pack up and head to St. George (for the 3rd consecutive weekend) with my friend Jules to play in a tennis tourney. In my quick departure, I pretty much left Jamie to his own devices to manage the kids. In true Jamie fashion, he upped the ante and continued his campaign for the"Good Parent" award.

What is the "Good Parent" you ask? Well, you've heard of Good Cop/Bad Cop? Same thing! Only trouble is, I am always playing "bad parent'.

A day with me sounds a little like ....."Do your chores, practice your piano, is your homework done?, clean your room, come empty the dishwasher, no TV until you are totally done with your chores, No! I won't take you to the gas station to buy candy again!!"

Well, throughout my weekend, I received several text messages complete with photos from Jamie as he lobbied to keep his post as Good Parent. If there was audio I reckon it would have sounded somewhat like this:

"Oh, you guys want to make a big ooey, gooey cake and put blue frosting on it...absolutely...let's make 3!" (OK, Emily our fab babysitter helped out here but...)

"Who wants to drive 40 minutes to Krispy Kreme in Orem for a hot sample? Then we can get dozens of them play the donut fairy to all of our friends"

(Yes, they are NOT in their jammies still, but they didn't comb their hair)

" OH....conference, smompference.....let's go swimming!!!"

As I type this I find myself feeling a bit of remorse for being more house manager and snuggler than spontaneous and fun with the kiddos........That is, however, the job of the good parent isn't it! (wink, wink)

Jamie truly is The Good/Better Parent! I just wish he'd quit making me looks so bad!