Hey everyone:

I'm moving my personal blog over to http://meredithe.tumblr.com/   It is  a free service and it allows you to do all sorts of cool things.  Come on over and take a look.  Next week I should have pictures up from the "big reveal"  redecoration of the living room.

Hi everyone:

It has been *a while* since the last update -- and I owe you pictures for sure!  I've been super busy with moving, getting the VA business off the ground etc.   Here are some highlights:

*  Diane and Brad (Jame's parents) are here for a while.  I think it will be great to spend some time with them and Suzanne thrives on the attention :)

* I passed my Virtual Assistant exam,  I got 90% but I think the person who graded the test did it wrong -- since the score doesn't mean anything (other than pass/fail)  I guess I won't write back and complain :)  I have 3 clients already and an internship.  But, mostly, I'm enjoying taking it a little easy and hanging out with Suzanne this summer. Her preschool is only 3 days a week. and for only 2 three-week sessions.

* Birthday season is now officially over.  Suzanne had a party at an upscale Chuckie Cheese -- everyone had a good time.  Did you know that it was after her birthday party last year that we decided to move to Albuquerque.  It has truly been an interesting year.  I like it here and I think Suzanne does too. 

* We bought a house.   I love the fact that it has hardwood floors and an awesome view.  I hate the fact that I still have boxes to unpack.  We are refurnishing our main room.  We had had our old furniture for 12 years.  The furniture store we went to had a free decorator service.  We took advantage of it.  I think it is going to turn out looking really nice.  I will send pictures in a few months after the furniture arrives and we have the "big reveal".

Meredith

Jame, Suzanne and I had a very  nice Passover.  It was one of the best because instead of breezing through the haggadah we were focusing on *teaching* Suzanne.  It was very cool.  Also,  for the first time, I did the cooking.  I'm not much of a cook -- but I think it turned out well :)

Hope you all had a happy passover!

Suzanne now has a new bike... it is pink, with a basket and tassles and she *loves* to ride it.  The only problem is that is doesn't know how to stop!  So, Mom sprints behind her... I'm thinking of getting a tandem with a low seat in the back just so that we can go together.

I'm having a string of bad luck with my bike training. First I had bronchitis and missed three sessions,  then Suzanne was sick, then we all had food poisoning.  I was back on the road today and I had three flat tires.  They finally threw me and my bike in the SAG wagon just past the halfway point.  So I only got a 25 mile ride done... The cool part was that i rode up a 4 mile long hill without getting totally winded.  The view was awesome it was cool.

So, I'll be back next week -- trying to get just a teeny bit faster so I can draft off the other ladies in my group :)

Thank you to EVERYONE who has donated to help me raise money for cancer research.  I have been astonished by your generosity. So far I have raised almost $1400 (wow!).  Unfortunately, we have all been sick with a cold so I have missed a few rides. Tomorrow is 30 miles -- I plan on going but I am scared.

I am experimenting with a little bit of internet marketing to see if can I raise even more money -- my goal is $5,000.   Here are a few of my other sites:

Squidoo - would you pay me to ride by bike 100 miles?
This is a cool new service that allows you to put up websites on the fly featuring links to products, information about your programs, etc.  Squidoo splits the revenue with you from the site. All the money from this site is going to Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Send Out A Smile
This site will give you more information about Send Out Cards - a really cool service that allows you to send out greeting cards (in the mail and everything) from online. It has already helped me out a lot with my thank you notes.  You can send a few cards for free  -- if you buy a $25 gift card you can send 10 cards (including postage) and $10 get donated to LLS.

Or you can just donate to  my online fundraising account.

I'll update everyone on how the ride goes...

In other news... Suzanne is as cute as ever -- now her random counting  contains numbers up to 30 (1,2, 14, 6, 7....)  She is also not the best student in the dance class... the teacher says she just doesn't follow along.  hmmm....

I sent out my fundraising plea to the 500 people in my gmail address book.  I edited the list -- but realized after the fact that I don't know half the people on the list.  Nonetheless, I have been getting really nice messages from people all day -- so I'm glad I sent the spam -- just to keep in touch if nothing else...  Plus, Jame found out that a good friend of his from college lives an hour away in Santa Fe!  He is thrilled.

I am getting excited about this ride because it is my way of getting my life back ....  I had to interrupt training for the last time I tried the century because I was pregnant with Suzanne.  I now have the time (well, I'm making time and it is good for S and J to spend time together) and energy to do it... it is a nice feeling.

Well.... the new year has brought some cool and interesting new things into my life.  As most of you know, I am starting a virtual assistance business in the spring.  My classes started 2 weeks ago.  Very interesting stuff.  I need to do lots of homework and learn to follow directions (tough part for me...)  I think I will learn a lot though.

The other exciting thing is that I've decided to mentor for the local Team in Training cycle team to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society. . The goal is to ride 100 miles in the Santa Fe Century in May.   I was originally just going to mentor and not fundraise, but I feel like I am so lucky that everyone in my family is healthy and happy -- I should do something to give back -- it is just good karma.  I was really surprised when I raised money for the triathlon I did 4 years ago at how many people I knew had close friends and family who had suffered from cancer. So, I am riding for all of those people AND for all of the people who may have cancer in the future. The research money raised by all of the fundraisers makes a huge difference. The cure/remission rate for most cancers as gone up tremendously in the past 10 years.  I hope that soon though there are no more TNT rides because cancer is 100% treatable.

My overly ambitious goal is to raise $5000 by May -- I went through my gmail address book and came up with 500 (no kidding) good names. I'm going to write my letter email it out and see what I get. (Expect a letter soon -- if you want to give sooner - please donate on my web page.
I'm also making a matching donation myself for all the money I spend on bike stuff getting ready.(this will both curb and justify my spending).

Our first training was last Saturday at at casino!  I was amazed at how many folks were there gambling at 9 a.m. I also realized how spoiled I was in VA because a) my rides were never all *that* rural really (always a bathroom somewhere... not so in the desert).  and b) I didn't ride in February -- they were talking about wearing ski gloves.... I had to duck out to look at houses so I didn't get to ride...

I managed to extract my bike from the free form art sculpture in the garage and go for a short ride on Monday. My bike got rusty on the trip so I need to get some magic eraser to see if I can fix it...

We had a great time visiting everyone in Salt Lake. Suzanne especially liked visiting her cousin Katina (almost 7).  K got to be big sis (she is the youngest) and S got to be little sis -- it was a nice change for both of them.  We tried to take Suzanne skating -- no dice.  Jennifer (once again) is injured -- she hurt her knee on the ski slopes.  Here are some pix.

When we visited Freddi, Jon and Milo over Thanksgiving, I had a picture in my mind of our next visit.  A very tired Freddi blissfully cuddling her new son.  Suzanne kissing her new baby cousin on the cheek.  Jame, as sandek, holding the baby during the bris.  A big party afterwards decorating Freddi's Christmas tree (she didn't want to put the tree up until after the bris).

We all know, that isn't what happened.  Instead of celebrating, we mourned the death of a soul that we will never know.  We attended a memorial service in too beautiful of a place for such a sad event.  We watched them lower an impossibly tiny casket into an impossibly small hole.  It feels like we've jumped tracks to the "bad alternate reality"  -- a dark future where Milo has a phantom brother.

This tragedy has touched me deeply -- maybe more deeply than is strictly appropriate.  In a sense, Freddi and I shared our pregnancies with Milo and Suzanne. The two cousins will (hopefully) always share a special bond.  Jame and I have chosen not to have more children but I was so happy when Freddi was pregnant with Shea.  It was a good and hopeful thing and I felt that Shea was so lucky to have parents like Freddi and Jon.  Shea's death just seems wrong, unfair and frankly hopeless (in the dark void sort of way).  We were stripped of our future when Shea died. I can't imagine Freddi's pain and don't know how to help.

I know that time will pass and the aches will dull.   I know that Shea is out there in the universe watching over Milo, Freddi and Jon and knowing he was dearly loved.

Ok -- we've finally gone over to the dark side and bought an SUV -- a Jeep Liberty to be exact.  We bought the Liberty to pull the pop up palace -- a new tent pop up trailer.  The pop up palace is huge -- it has a fridge, a microwave/convection oven, a king and a queen sized bed, air conditioning,  a shower/toilet and even a radio that lets you plug in your ipod.

The idea is that we all (including Bullet and Peanut) will go camping a lot around New Mexico in relative comfort.  I think that we are going to end up being servants to the pop up palace -- I'm already losing my coveted garage space and we had to trade in our zippy Honda for the gas thirsty Liberty.  I guess we are just going to have to buy a house closer to town so we can bike around instead of driving either of the gas guzzling cars.

That aside, I think sleeping not on the ground and having someplace to piddle in the middle of the night might just be worth it. New Mexico is beautiful and I can't wait to get out and see it.  Since we have LOTS of room, the invite is open to come hang out with us....