Happy New Year!

I wasn't going to post any New Years resolutions, but, continuing my work on improving fitness and speed on the bike has high priority heading into 2009!

I don't want this day to end, it has been a wonderful 4 days off from work and I wish there could be 4 more just like it!

I start call on Monday thru the following Monday(my first time). Hopefully we won't get any complicated cases. Dr. Dave, I may be calling you for advice, so don't get too snookered up :) on New Years Eve.

Rob may also have to work New Years Eve, so we opted to not have a New Years Eve Bash as we were originally thinking. We are planning to reschedule the Hofmann's Trails party though, very soon. Watch for an E-invite soon.

From our family to yours,

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas Letter- 2008

Christmas came early for us this year. Our gift to each other was throwing our 25^th Anniversary party. What an amazing day it was with over 100 of our family and friends spending the day together. It was 8 months after our real “25”, however, we were sure that no one would have showed if we would have had an outside Anniversary party at the end of January. Thank you to all who made our day special.

With biking this year, Rob raced in all 12 of the WORS races and pretty much was in the series run for the top 3 in his category for most of the season. I did only a few WORS races, but hope to do more next year. We raised money for the MACC fund research center, doing the TREK 100. It was pretty fun, but as the ride was ending, the weather turned and they ended up cutting short the post race festivities. Soon after this ride, I participated in the Danskin Triathlon raising money for breast cancer research. We again competed in the 24 Hours of 9 Mile MTB race as a 24 hour duo team and placed 4^th out of 17 teams. In our category, most of the other teams were male/male, so we were pretty happy with our results. Then came the Chequamegon 40 mile up in Cable WI, we finished, but conditions weren’t the best, as this race ended in the rain. This race was in combination with our vacation this year as we rented a cabin for the week on a lake. We went kayaking, boating, casual biking and had several days of pure rest and relaxation. Some other times away from home were spent visiting Mom C. Up North, either before or after our racing in the area.

We’re both keeping busy with workouts this winter so we can enjoy the race season again next year. Rob’s been snowshoeing with the dogs in our winter wonderland (he has almost 3 miles of trails built out our back lot) and I joined anytime fitness center to train for a half-marathon coming up in about 20 weeks (in May, in Door County).

I’m happily employed now at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Milwaukee Medical Center since February. It’s almost a year already. It was a hard decision to make after working over 24 years at the Medical College of Wisconsin. I’m still in the Gastroenterology division which made for a very easy transition into a new position. Presenting in Richmond, VA last month was the highlight of my work year as I was able to teach others the knowledge I’ve gained over many years of work in the Division of Gastroenterology.

Rob celebrated 10 years at Johnson Controls. They held a very nice reception for their employees with anniversaries 10 years and over at the Pfister Hotel a few months back. It was a nice event and was much appreciated. With the changing economy, they have cancelled the annual holiday party that was usually held at the Midwest Express Center this year.

As I write this year’s letter, Wylie and Buster are outside playing in the snow. I can see them though the patio door, they are enjoying every minute of it. Our cat Carlie rarely comes downstairs from the upper level of our house but because the doggies are outside, I see her sneaking down to the main level, this is very unusual.

Tonight, is tree trimming night and then it’s time to get ready for cookie baking. This tradition has been going on for many years now; we always have snacks and Mimosa’s for us busy bakers and of course we never burn a batch….lol, right.

Chad and his girlfriend, Kristin are teaching at Messmer and Cudahy High Schools, respectively. They are busy teachers, and have both taken on Coaching roles outside their primary responsibilities, (Chad is head Baseball coach and Kristin is coaching Volleyball), so we don’t see them as often as we would like. We are looking forward to spending more time with them as Christmas time arrives.

Each year I sit to write this note, I often wonder what to write about but what is most important is said in one sentence here at the end.

From the both of us, we would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

My Christmas Present

All I Want for Christmas

Do you think this would work?

Yesterday's Cookie Day Pics

Outdoor Partay CANCELLED

This will be rescheduled at a later date! When u ask?

1)When there is cooler weather
2) and when we have more fresh snow
3) and when more people can make it


We'll let you know.

Outdoor PARTAY!

Hey, Don't Forget about This Sunday!

Bring your winter gear of snowshoes, sleds, ski's, boots, ski's or bicycles.

RSVP candiesays@aim.com

Trainer

Tonight was the 2nd workout on the trainer since I started the new workout routine.
35-40 minutes on Tuesday's and Thursdays, with the M-W-F run/walk series. So far, so good. I'm looking forward to stepping it up, however, it stays the same from wk 1-4. Yesterday marked the start of the 2nd week. It appears to be that I'm making it thru the tough part of getting into a set routine. One more week of this and I should be hooked. Problem is, there aren't enough hours in the day to do all that needs to be done. Well, this, IM'ing and face book have been taking more time than I can really afford, so I've decided to use the blog as a journal for my training with short and sweet posts and limit my time on face book to about 15 minutes.

A Christmas Carol

Day "5"

Today at the gym I did what the training schedule called for:
5min warm up
3min run followed by 2 minutes walk for 7 repetitions
during the 3min runs I stayed between 5 and 5.5 mph
during the 2 min walks I cut back pretty far to 2.5-3mph
2min cool down
I made it just about 3miles

So to wrap up the M-F workout routine:

M-W-F run with the above schedule
Tues and Thurs- Biking on the trainer for 45min at moderate pace

I think I might rest both tomorrow and Sunday as the tree needs to be bought before heading to the Pabst.

Done Deal

Not much to post tonight, other than the deal is done with the truck .

The highlight of the day? I've made it through 4 whole days of my training schedule.

This weekend is Morgan's (my Great Neice/Godchild's) birthday party.

We're going to take my Neice, her kids and Mom C. to see "A Christmas Carol" at the Pabst.

Should be a good time.

Hope to post some pics Sunday night.

Half Marathon

Yesterday marked the start of a 20 week training program to compete with Sue and Lynne in a Half Marathon right before the WORS season starts in Door County. I think Chad's girlfriend may also do it as they now have a treadmill.

I'm really excited to participate in this event. But more importantly, I'm looking forward to getting my ass back in shape!

Tranny Gone

We may lay to rest our 2004 Dakota tonight due to a frozen, (I mean really frozen) transmission. Sugs had it towed in and found out to fix it would cost about 3600.00 to repair, so we decided to check out a deal on a new one instead. Possible employee pricing and a decent trade in amount for the truck, we're checking into buying new instead of fixing the old.

Then, Sugs broke a tooth today too. So, ya think I should trade him in?*






*(I better stop talking so smart, or I may find myself traded)